New Jersey and New York: 21 Days if You're Coming from West Africa

[presence]

http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/10/chris_christie_and_andrew_cuomo_making_4_pm_announ cement_about_ebola_breaking.html




TRENTON (http://www.nj.com/politics/) — Gov. Chris Christie and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo will be making an unscheduled joint announcement about Ebola at 4 pm today, both governors announced via Twitter. (https://twitter.com/GovChristie)

[wizardwatson]

Unless you're entering from Mexican border.

[Miss Annie]

Unless you're entering from Mexican border.

There's a big fat dose of reality!

[presence]

LIVE

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/live-video/

Gov. Cuomo, Gov. Christie Discuss Latest Ebola Developments NOW | Watch Live (http://newyork.cbslocal.com/live-video/) | Listen: 1010 WINS (http://player.radio.com/listen/station/1010-wins) | WCBS 880 (http://player.radio.com/listen/station/wcbs-newsradio-880)

[presence]

NJ/NY consider mandatory 21-day quarantines for high-risk travelers Everett Rosenfeld (http://www.cnbc.com/id/101646706) | @Ev_Rosenfeld (http://twitter.com/@Ev_Rosenfeld)
6 Mins AgoCNBC.com



This is a breaking news article.Please check back for updates on this story.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced Friday that he and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie are planning to increase current screening procedures for people travelling from Ebola-affected regions.
Depending on an individual's risk level—exposure to infected individuals and countries visited—a mandatory 21-day quarantine could be instituted, Cuomo said.
All medical workers from Ebola-affected countries will be subject to a quarantine, said Dr. Howard Zucker, acting commissioner of health for New York State. Cuomo said voluntary quarantine is not sufficient, and that it is "almost an oxymoron."
"In an region like this, you go out one, two, or three times—you ride the subway, you ride a bus—you could affect hundreds and hundreds of people," Cuomo added.


http://fm.cnbc.com/applications/cnbc.com/resources/img/editorial/2014/10/24/102120097-RTR4B1PP.530x298.jpg?v=1414183443 Reuters
DATE IMPORTED:October 21, 2014A U.S. Coast Guard Corpsman working with the Office of Field Operations checks the temperature of a traveler who has recently traveled to either Guinea, Sierra Leone, or Liberia in this handout picture from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

"There is no reason for undo concern or undo anxiety under this situation," the New York governor said. "I believe this adjustment and increasing the screening procedures is necessary. I think it reduces the risk to New Yorkers and the residents of New Jersey."

Christie indicated that authorities have already stopped one traveler in Newark.
Cuomo said that he and Christie believe it is a state's right to protect their borders, and he indicated that the governors have been in touch with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He added he believed the CDC's procedures are "not rigorous enough."
Christie said the measures are "necessary to protect public health."
"CDC's guidance is continually changing, and we need to set a standard for our two states," Christie said.

These new procedures have already been put in place at the Port Authority airports, Cuomo said.
Cuomo and Christie appeared at a Friday afternoon media conference from 7 World Trade Center in Manhattan.




http://www.cnbc.com/id/102119947

[presence]

Oct 24 (Reuters) - New York and New Jersey will bolster screening for Ebola beyond federal requirements for travelers from West Africa arriving at the area's airports, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Friday.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has agreed that states have the right to exceed federal requirements, Cuomo told a joint news conference with New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.
Travelers from Ebola-affected countries in West Africa will undergo interviews upon arrival at one of the New York City-area airports and may face quarantine orders, Cuomo said. (Reporting By Frank McGurty; Editing by Sandra Maler (http://blogs.reuters.com/search/journalist.php?edition=us&n=sandra.maler&))

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/24/health-ebola-usa-screening-idUSL2N0SJ2PN20141024

[presence]

"A voluntary Ebola quarantine is not enough,” said Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo

“We are no longer relying on C.D.C. standards,” Mr. Christie said


http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/25/nyregion/new-york-ebola-case-craig-spencer.html?_r=0


New York and New Jersey to Enhance Airport Screenings for Ebola, Governors Announce

By MARC SANTORA (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/s/marc_santora/index.html)OCT. 24, 2014
Play Video|1:54

De Blasio on How to Help in Ebola Crisis



In the wake of the first patient to test positive with the Ebola virus in New York City, the governors of New York and New Jersey announced Friday afternoon that they were enhancing the screening at airports in their states and ordering all people who had contact with Ebola patients to be quarantined.
Already, one individual was ordered on Friday into quarantine for three weeks despite the fact that the individual displayed no signs of illness.
“A voluntary Ebola quarantine is not enough,” said Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York. “This is too serious a public health situation.”
Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey said that the federal guidelines, which starting Monday will require all people traveling to America from one of the countries in West Africa where the disease is endemic to monitor their own health and report those results to a local health worker, were not strict enough.


In New York City, disease investigators continue their search for anyone who came into contact with New York City’s first Ebola patient since Tuesday morning, health officials said, adding they were acting out of an abundance of caution to ensure that they find anyone who might have been at risk of infection.
Three people who had contact with the patient, Dr. Craig Spencer, have been quarantined, and investigators have compiled a detailed accounting of his movements in the days before he was placed in isolation at Bellevue Hospital on Thursday.
He remains in stable condition and doctors are discussing the use of various experimental treatments that might help him battle the virus.
Health officials said that initial reports were incorrect when they indicated that Dr. Craig Spencer, 33, had a 103-degree fever (http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/symptoms/fever/overview.html?inline=nyt-classifier) when he notified authorities of his ill health on Thursday. He actually had only a 100.3 fever. Officials attributed the mistake to a transcription error and said the lower temperature made it highly unlikely that he could have spread the disease before going to the hospital. But they were tracing his contacts back to Tuesday, the day he began feeling fatigued.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday that its laboratory had confirmed a city laboratory’s finding, on Thursday, that Dr. Spencer had the virus.
Dr. Spencer had been working with Doctors Without Borders in Guinea, treating Ebola patients, before leaving Africa on Oct. 14 and returning to New York City on Oct. 17, according to a city official.
Since March, three international staff members and 21 locally employed staff members of the group have fallen ill while battling the Ebola outbreak in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, according to the group. Thirteen have died. Dr. Spencer is the first worker out of more than 700 expatriate staff members deployed so far to West Africa to develop symptoms after returning home.

Three Quarantined in New York Ebola Case



Two friends and the fiancée of the Manhattan doctor infected with Ebola have been quarantined, according to officials at a news conference.
Publish Date October 24, 2014. Photo by Associated Press.
Dr. Spencer was in stable condition on Friday, according to Dr. Mary T. Bassett, the city’s health commissioner.. The moment he was given a diagnosis, a discussion began about how best to treat him. Nearly all the patients treated in the United States have received some form of experimental treatment and doctors were discussing what, if any, of those they will use. Doctors at Bellevue are consulting with experts at Emory University Hospital and the University of Nebraska Medical Center, both of which have successfully treated Ebola patients.
In other cases, victims have received plasma from the blood of an Ebola survivor in the hopes that antibodies (http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/test/antibody-titer/overview.html?inline=nyt-classifier) in the blood of an Ebola victim may help fight the virus.
Health officials said that Dr. Spencer reported his symptoms to authorities at around 11 a.m. on Thursday and was transported to Bellevue Hospital Center and put into isolation. He still had only a low grade fever.
As a hazardous material team arrived at Dr. Spencer’s apartment in Harlem, where they were going to sanitize the residence, public officials took to the airwaves seeking to reassure wary residents that the risk to the general public was exceedingly small.
“New Yorkers who have not been exposed to an infected person’s bodily fluids are simply not at risk,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said at a news conference Friday afternoon.
“We have the finest public health system, not only anywhere in the country but anywhere in the world,” he said. “We are fully ready to handle Ebola.”
Much of the public’s concern focused on the movements of the patient the night before he reported feeling ill on Thursday morning.

http://static01.********/images/2014/10/23/nyregion/new-york-city-ebola-patient-map-1414137847417/new-york-city-ebola-patient-map-1414137847417-master495-v2.png
OPEN Graphic

(http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/10/23/nyregion/new-york-city-ebola-patient-timeline-map.html) On Friday, officials added some new details about those movements. He traveled on the A and L subway lines to Brooklyn, where he went bowling in Williamsburg and took a taxi back to Manhattan on Wednesday evening. He assured officials that he was not symptomatic at the time.
Earlier in the day, he went for a three-mile jog along Riverside Drive. On Tuesday — the day Dr. Spencer first began to feel sluggish, according to what he told health investigators — he visited the High Line and ate a meal at the Meatball Shop at 64 Greenwich Avenue. Health workers are in the process of visiting every location Dr. Spencer visited, Dr. Bassett said.
Dr. Bassett said that while they believe the risk to the people Dr. Spencer came into contact with before being placed in isolation was minimal, the authorities were reaching out to anyone who had contact with Dr. Spencer starting at 7 a.m. on Oct. 21, when he first felt slightly unwell, “out of an abundance of caution.”
The disease continues to spread, killing thousands in West Africa and popping up in a growing number of cities around the world. On Friday, federal health officials said they were considering stepping up precautions to guard against new cases in this country even more.
The Ebola virus can be transmitted to other people only through bodily fluids when an infected individual begins to show symptoms. At the onset of illness, the amount of virus in the body is generally low, so the risk of infection is also considered small.
As the disease progresses, the amount of virus in the body multiplies and so does the risk of contagion.
The initial report that Dr. Spencer’s temperature on Thursday was 103 set off fears that he might have had a fever earlier, perhaps even when he went bowling and traveled on the subway Wednesday. The news that his fever was three degrees lower may assuage some of those fears.


A photograph of Dr. Spencer on his LinkedIn page. The question of exactly when Dr. Spencer started developing symptoms is critical because the authorities want to find anyone he came into physical contact with during this period, no matter how small the risk of contagion.
Dr. Spencer’s fiancée, Morgan Dixon, who lived with him, has been quarantined at Bellevue Hospital. Two other friends whom he had contact with have also been quarantined.
None of them have shown any symptoms of illness.
One city official said the authorities used Dr. Spencer’s phone to track his movements and potential contacts and to corroborate the account he has given to health investigators. The official said that the doctor had been very cooperative and that the information he had given had proven very reliable. But the official noted that memory, particularly in stressful situations, is an imperfect tool, and the doctor’s phone, credit cards and other materials have been useful to fill out his account.
Health workers were scheduled to visit the bowling alley in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, where Dr. Spencer bowled, when it opens at 2 p.m. on Friday. They are not planning on cleaning the facility, but rather, interviewing people there to be sure that he did not have any unknown contacts.
“There is the pure science in terms of what we know and what can come from that,” said Dr. Irwin Redlener, the director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University and a special adviser to Mayor de Blasio. “On the other end of the spectrum, there is the world of abundance of caution. Public officials are constantly trying to find the right balance.”
Soon after Dr. Spencer was diagnosed with Ebola on Thursday, Governor Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio participated in a conference call with federal, state and local health officials to determine if they needed to take any action regarding the subway cars on which Dr. Spencer rode on Wednesday.

[presence]

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2014/10/24/new-york-new-jersey-set-up-mandatory-quarantine-requirement-amid-ebola-threat/


New York, New Jersey Set Up Mandatory Quarantine Requirement Amid Ebola Threat

Christie: New Policy Has Already Been Used At Newark Liberty International Airport October 24, 2014 5:00 PM

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NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) — In the wake of the first confirmed Ebola virus case in New York City (http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2014/10/24/officials-urge-calm-after-first-ebola-case-confirmed-in-nyc/), the states of New York and New Jersey have set up a new screening system that goes above and beyond the guidelines already set up by federal officials.
As CBS 2’s Alice Gainer reported, no other states have yet set up increased screening procedures for Ebola.

“We believe it’s appropriate to increase the current screening procedures from people coming from affected countries from the current (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention screening procedures),” Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Friday afternoon.


“We believe it within the State of New York and the State of New Jersey’s legal rights.”

Under the new rules, state officials will establish a risk level by considering the countries that people have visited and their level of possible exposure to Ebola.


The patients with the highest level of possible exposure will be automatically quarantined for 21 days at a government-regulated facility. Those with a lower risk will be monitored for temperature and symptoms, Cuomo explained.

The New York and New Jersey health departments will determine their own specific procedures for hospitalization and quarantine, and will provide a daily recap to state officials on the status of screening, New York State Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker said at the news conference.

The new procedures already have been put into use at Newark Liberty International Airport.

On Friday, a health care worker landed at Newark after treating Ebola patients in West Africa, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said at the news conference. A legal quarantine was issued for the woman, who was not a New Jersey resident and was set to go on to New York afterward.

“This woman, while her home residence is outside the area, said her next stop was going to be here in New York,” Christie said. “Governor Cuomo and I discussed it before we came out here, and a quarantine order will be issued.”

The woman will be quarantined in either New York or New Jersey, Christie said.

In discussing the new plan, Cuomo and Christie said a policy of voluntary quarantine simply does not go far enough.

“Voluntary quarantine – you know it’s almost an oxymoron. This is a very serious situation.” Cuomo said.


“Voluntary quarantine – raise your right hand and promise you’re going to stay home for 21 days.

We’ve seen what happens.”

The new rules were announced a day after Dr. Craig Spencer, a member of Doctors Without Borders, became New York City’s first Ebola patient.
He reported Thursday morning coming down with a fever and diarrhea and is being treated in an isolation ward at Bellevue Hospital (http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2014/10/17/8-hospitals-designated-to-treat-ebola-in-new-york/), a designated Ebola center.
Spencer returned from West Africa last Friday after treating Ebola patients in Guinea with Doctors Without Borders. He arrived at John F. Kennedy International Airport (http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2014/10/22/ebola-airport-checks-expand-as-health-care-workers-get-training/), passing the extensive CDC screening process.

“When he arrived in the United States, he was also well with no symptoms,” said New York City Health Commissioner Mary Travis Bassett.
Doctors Without Borders said per the guidelines it provides its staff members on their return from Ebola assignments, “the individual engaged in regular health monitoring and reported this development immediately.” But Spencer also took the subway, walked the High Line, and went bowling in Williamsburg, Brooklyn the day before he became sick.

“He was a doctor, and even he didn’t follow the guidelines,” Cuomo said.

With that in mind, the states have to lay down the law, the governors said.

“It’s too serious a situation to leave it to the honor system,” Cuomo said.

The CDC is reviewing its policy for health care workers returning from West Africa, but anyone flying into a Port Authority of New York and New Jersey airport will need to abide by the new procedures.

[wizardwatson]

We're the government and we're here to help.

Please don't touch me.

[alucard13mm]

I don't particularly mind if they quarantine people coming in from West Africa just because the threat is real. This is not some made up boogie man, like terrorists.

You can check on passports what country a traveler has recently gone to.

[francisco]

http://fm.cnbc.com/applications/cnbc.com/resources/img/editorial/2014/10/24/102120097-RTR4B1PP.530x298.jpg?v=1414183443


DATE IMPORTED:October 21, 2014 A U.S. Coast Guard Corpsman working with the Office of Field Operations checks the temperature of a traveler who has recently traveled to either Guinea, Sierra Leone, or Liberia in this handout picture from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Aha!! All the pieces are falling into place, now.

Remember when O-bomb-ya pronounced the word as "corpse-man"???

[invisible]

From the article in post #7:


One city official said the authorities used Dr. Spencer’s phone to track his movements and potential contacts and to corroborate the account he has given to health investigators. The official said that the doctor had been very cooperative and that the information he had given had proven very reliable. But the official noted that memory, particularly in stressful situations, is an imperfect tool, and the doctor’s phone, credit cards and other materials have been useful to fill out his account.