DHS requires West Africa travelers to arrive at five airports

USA TODAY                                                                                     Oct. 21, 2914By Bart Jansen

WASHINGTON — The Department of Homeland Security announced Tuesday that all travelers from Ebola outbreak countries in West Africa will be funneled through one of five U.S. airports with enhanced screening starting Wednesday.

                                                                       (Photo: Melissa Maraj, AP)

Customs and Border Protection within the department began enhanced screening — checking the traveler's temperature and asking about possible exposure to Ebola — at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport on Oct. 11.

Enhanced screening for travelers from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea was expanded Oct. 16 to Washington's Dulles, Chicago's O'Hare, New Jersey's Newark and Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson international airports.

Those airports were supposed to screen 94% of the average 150 people per day arriving from the three countries. But lawmakers from other states asked for enhanced screening at their airports, too.

Some lawmakers have also called for more restrictions, such as suspending visas or simply denying entry at ports for citizens from the three countries....

The new restrictions are expected to affect only about nine travelers per day who would have arrived at other airports. Katie Cody, a spokeswoman for American Airlines, which serves Europe from hubs such as Philadelphia and Charlotte, N.C.,said the airline has no concerns about the change.

"We have been tracking that and we don't have any concerns because the numbers are so small," Cody said.

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http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/10/21/ebola-travel-restrictions-dhs-screening-jfk-dulles-ohare-newark-atlanta/17655889/