The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is rerouting passengers arriving from Ebola-affected countries to designated airports for mandatory health screenings [1].
These restrictions aim to prevent the domestic spread of the virus amid a rapidly expanding outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, and South Sudan [2].
The directive applies to any traveler who has been in those three countries within the past 21 days [3]. Under the new rules, these passengers must be routed to specific U.S. hubs equipped to handle health screenings [1].
Initial guidance issued May 22 required all such passengers to arrive at a single location: Washington-Dulles International Airport in Virginia [4]. However, updated guidance released this week expanded the list to three airports [1]. Passengers may now be routed to Washington-Dulles, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in Georgia, or George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, Texas [1, 5].
The shift to multiple hubs follows the initial mandate that all flights land only at Dulles [4, 6]. This expansion allows the government to distribute the screening load across different regions of the U.S. as the outbreak continues to evolve [1].
Officials said the measures are necessary to identify potentially infected individuals before they enter the general population. The designated airports will implement specific protocols to isolate and test travelers coming from the high-risk regions [2].
“Travelers who have been in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, or South Sudan within the past 21 days must be routed to designated airports.”
The move to expand screening from a single airport to three major hubs indicates that the U.S. government expects a higher volume of travelers from affected regions than initially anticipated. By utilizing Atlanta and Houston alongside Washington-Dulles, the DHS is attempting to balance national security and public health requirements with the operational capacity of the U.S. aviation infrastructure.
