After the first case of Ebola was diagnosed in New York City, state officials in New York and New Jersey announced a screening system on Friday that is stricter than federal guidelines for those entering the United States from some West African nations.
Medical personnel and others coming from Guinea, Sierra Leone or Liberia after having direct contact with Ebola victims will be quarantined for 21 days under the new guidelines, according to the New York Times.
The first case under the new mandate came Friday. The Times says an American health care worker returning via New Jersey’s Newark Liberty International Airport after treating Ebola patients in West Africa was quarantined. Initially she showed no symptoms, but by evening she had developed a fever, according to the Times.
The quarantine mandate comes just a day after a doctor in New York City became the first person in the city to test positive for the Ebola virus, causing alarm among residents and lawmakers and other public officials. The doctor, Craig Spencer, had recently returned from treating Ebola patients in Guinea.
His diagnosis came after he set about his normal life in the city, including riding on the subway and visiting a Brooklyn bowling alley. As a precaution, his fiancee and two friends with whom he had been in contact have been quarantined, the report says.