The U.S. State Department confirmed Wednesday that new travel restrictions tied to the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo are now preventing American citizens and nationals from flying home on commercial aircraft if they have been in the African nation within the past 21 days.
Reuters first broke the story this week, reporting that President Donald Trump’s administration had put the policy in place to block Americans in Congo from taking commercial flights back to the United States.
The U.S. embassy website in Congo spelled out the rules clearly: “Travelers who have been in the DRC within 21 days of their flight will not be allowed to board flights with U.S. destinations.”
The embassy also advised: “All U.S. citizens and U.S. nationals who have been in the DRC should plan to remain outside the DRC for 21 days before entering the United States.”
The restrictions are a response to an ongoing Ebola outbreak that has spread across multiple provinces within Congo. The latest official Congolese figures, released late Sunday, showed confirmed cases had climbed to 1,926, with 702 people having died from the disease.
Dr. Daniel Jernigan, a former senior official at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who led the American response to the 2014-2015 Ebola outbreak in West Africa, said the use of a “do-not-board” policy to stop U.S. citizens from coming home — even when they face little risk of actual Ebola infection — is without precedent.
Jernigan warned of broader consequences, stating: “This change in policy risks shifting medical and public-health responsibility to third countries, it may encourage travelers to conceal itineraries or exposures, and it will make recruitment of American outbreak responders more difficult.”
