Brenda Fitzgerald, second from right, Georgia Department of Public Health commissioner, and Gov. Nathan Deal, right, respond to questions about Ebola victims under treatment at Emory University Hospital and stepped up efforts to screen for Ebola among travelers passing through Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport during the governor’s visit to Georgia Tech Thursday, Oct. 16, 2014, in Atlanta. A joint emergency isolation unit administered by Emory University Hospital and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is currently treating two Ebola-stricken patients. (AP Photo/David Tulis)CUMMING, Ga. (AP) – Since Georgia is home to one of five airports where people can arrive in the U.S. from countries affected by Ebola, the state’s governor said Monday extra screening and precautions are necessary.
Gov. Nathan Deal said the guidelines drawn up by the state’s Ebola response team are stringent but are less restrictive than those put in place by some other states, especially with regard to health care workers who return after treating Ebola patients.
“We’re going to try to be as mindful of their privacy and their own necessity to move about but, by the same token, if they pose a potential threat to the health of the citizens of Georgia, we believe a quarantine would be appropriate,” Deal told reporters after a campaign stop in Cumming, about 40 miles northeast of Atlanta.
The Department of Homeland Security last week designated Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport as one of five airports in the country where passengers from Ebola-affected countries can arrive in the U.S., and where they would be subject to screening.
At the airport, quarantine station personnel will screen passengers arriving from the designated countries by checking their temperature, looking for symptoms and determining whether they have had contact with anyone infected by Ebola, the governor said.