The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has sent 100 staff members to three different airports to check passengers arriving from China, worrying they may have contracted the mysterious new virus plaguing the country, CNN reports.
- The screenings begin Saturday.
- The CDC will look for patients who are coughing or who struggle to breathe.
- The CDC will take temperatures for every passengers with an infrared thermometer, too.
Rare: This isn’t common. It hasn’t happened since 2014 during the Ebola outbreak, according to CNN.
- Dr. Martin Cetron, director of the CDC’s division of global migration and quarantine, told CNN: “I’ve been here since 1996, and that’s the only other time we’ve ever done this — for Ebola.
The airport: The screenings will take place at the following airports:
- John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City
- San Francisco International Airport
- Los Angeles International Airport
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Context: The norovirus made headlines last week after spreading in China and raising concerns that MERS or SARS had returned, as I wrote about for the Deseret News.
- The World Health Organization said the illness was tied to a central market in Wuhan, China. This calmed fears that the virus might spread.
- The virus spread outside of China though, reaching Japan and Thailand.
- WHO: “Considering global travel patterns, additional cases in other countries are likely.”