The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the U.S. has extended the recently issued travel ban on individuals who have been to Uganda, South Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) during the past 21 days to now include green card holders. The reason given for this broadened ban is to prevent the disease from being brought into the country by legal permanent residents.
The previous travel ban had excluded U.S. citizens, green card holders and other nationals and was to be in effect for 30 days. However, the CDC issued a notice including green card holders in that travel ban. Only nationals and citizens now remain excluded from the ban on individuals who have recently traveled to the flagged countries.
In its statement, the CDC explained that implementing those further restrictions on people who have secured permanent residency status in the U.S. was a necessary step in the federal agency’s desire to strike a balance between the country’s efforts to manage its emergency responses while also protecting public health.
The actions of the U.S. CDC come after the World Health Organization categorized the risk level of the Bundibugyo variant of the Ebola outbreak as very high due to the likelihood that this rare strain could escalate into a countrywide outbreak in the DRC and Uganda, as well as South Sudan. Consequently, the WHO flagged the current Ebola outbreak as an emergency of global concern.
The CDC cited Title 42 of the American public health law as giving the agency authority to impose restrictions on immigrants wishing to enter the U.S. Such restrictions are geared at preventing contagious diseases from being brought into the country and spreading to people in the U.S.
In the past, travel restrictions issued didn’t apply to holders of green cards. For example, the travel restrictions issued during the COVID-19 outbreak didn’t include these individuals, and neither did previous travel restrictions imposed by Trump in the past. The current inclusion of holders of green cards in travel bans linked to the recent Ebola outbreak in Africa therefore shows how seriously the CDC takes the risks posed by this disease.
All stakeholders in the healthcare sector, including firms like Astiva Health, are probably getting very concerned about the likelihood of this disease getting into the country and potentially spreading rapidly once one traveler who has been exposed slips through the systems that have been established to screen people entering the U.S.
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