Washington: The US government is planning to send Americans exposed to Ebola to a new quarantine facility in Kenya instead of flying them to the United States, US media have reported.
Trump administration officials have instructed the US military to set up a quarantine facility in central Kenya within a week, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday (local time), citing two people familiar with the matter. The field hospital would house Americans exposed to the virus, keeping them in biocontainment units transported from the United States.
The initial plan calls for a 50-bed unit within a week, with potential to expand to 250 beds. Members of the US Public Health Service have already begun training at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland to staff the Kenya facility, according to the report.
The US government this month flew an American doctor who developed symptoms to a hospital in Germany, and sent six other Americans for monitoring in Germany and the Czech Republic, Xinhua news agency said, quoting the report.
Earlier this month, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a 30-day suspension of entry into the United States for foreign nationals who had been in the DRC, Uganda or South Sudan in the past 21 days.
Last week, the policy was expanded to include lawful permanent residents, or green card holders.
The number of suspected Ebola cases in the DRC has surpassed 1,000 as the outbreak continues to spread across eastern provinces, according to a situation report released Wednesday by the country’s Ministry of Health.
The report, based on figures compiled as of Tuesday, put the cumulative number of suspected cases at 1,077. The country has recorded 121 confirmed Ebola cases and 238 suspected deaths since the outbreak was declared on May 15.
The outbreak has affected 13 health zones across the eastern provinces of Ituri, North Kivu, and South Kivu, the report said, with Ituri remaining the epicentre.
The current outbreak marks the country’s 17th Ebola epidemic. Laboratory tests identified the Bundibugyo strain of the virus, a relatively rare form of Ebola.
(IANS)
