WASHINGTON — The region’s largest international gateway on Thursday will begin screening selected arriving passengers for signs of the Ebola virus.
Customs and Border Protection agents will be at Dulles International Airport to meet passengers arriving from the three hardest-hit countries in West Africa: Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.
“We don’t have any direct flights from the three countries, but we do see about 15 to 55 passengers [from there] on a daily basis,” says Chris Paolino, a spokesman for Dulles and Ronald Reagan Washington National airports.
The only direct service from West Africa to Dulles is a South African Airways flight that originates in Johannesburg and stops in Dakar, Senegal, before arriving at Dulles.
In screening rooms, health officials will use no-touch thermometers to take the temperatures of the passengers. Officials also will question what, if any, contact the passengers may have had with people exposed to the virus.
New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport began the additional screenings last weekend. Airports in Chicago, Atlanta and Newark also start enhanced screenings on Thursday.
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The Associated Press contributed to this article. Follow @WTOP on Twitter and on the WTOP Facebook page.
