Air Chance Flight 378 To Detroit Metro Diverted Due To Ebola Restrictions

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has now extended the Ebola entry ban to lawful permanent U.S. residents who have been in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Uganda, or South Sudan within the past 21 days. This action was taken pursuant to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advisory issued on Friday:

https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/5892561-trump-administration-ebola-outbreak-restrictions-green-card-holders/

Trump administration expands Ebola travel restrictions to green card holders
By Sarah Davis - May 23, 2026

The Trump administration updated its travel restrictions amid the Ebola outbreak to temporarily include the entry of lawful permanent residents who have been in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Uganda and South Sudan in the past 21 days.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which oversees the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), issued this advisory on Friday, updating its previous 30-day restriction on foreign individuals traveling from these countries to include green card holders. U.S. nationals and green card residents were previously exempt.

The CDC noted that this decision “does not permanently bar” these residents from reentering the U.S.

“Instead, it gives CDC discretionary authority to restrict entry when needed and allowed by law,” the notice read. “Applying this authority to lawful permanent residents for a limited period of time provides a balance between protecting public health and managing emergency response resources.”

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared a global public health emergency due to an outbreak of the Bundibugyo strain of the Ebola virus in Congo and Uganda.

As of Friday, the DRC and Uganda ministries of health have reported 744 suspected cases of the virus, 83 confirmed cases and 176 deaths from suspected cases, according to the CDC.

WHO Director General Tedros Ghebreyesus shared in a Saturday morning social media post that Uganda reported three new confirmed Ebola cases, bringing the country’s total confirmed number to five.

“At this critical moment in the outbreak response, it is vital that authorities maintain high vigilance to control expansion of the virus,” Ghebreyesus wrote in the post.

The State Department announced on Thursday that all travelers to the U.S. from these three affected nations must be directed to Washington Dulles International Airport in Virginia for an “enhanced screening” process. The department later added Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and George Bush Intercontinental Airport to the list of accepted airports approved for this heightened reentry process.

Dr. Satish K. Pillai, the incident manager for the CDC’s Ebola response, told reporters in a Friday briefing that the outbreak’s risk domestically “remains low,” citing U.S. health care preparedness.

Some health experts have raised concerns about the U.S.’s preparedness to host the World Cup, which kicks off on June 11. A recent public health assessment from Trust for America’s Health found that fewer than half of U.S. states are adequately prepared for a public health emergency ahead of this large-scale event.

The head of the White House’s task force for the event, Andrew Giuliani, said on Friday that the Congo’s national soccer team must also isolate for 21 days in order to enter the U.S. to compete in these games. The Congolese team is set to face off against Portugal on June 17 in Houston.

“We’ve made it very clear to the Congo government as well that they need to maintain that bubble or they risk not being able to travel to the United States,” the younger Giuliani said. “We cannot be any clearer.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has added their enhanced Ebola screening protocols at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport (ATL) for U.S. citizens arriving from Congo, Uganda, or South Sudan.  These screening protocols are already in place at Northern Virginia's Dulles International Airport (IAD) and at Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH):

https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/5892834-ebola-screening-atlanta-airport/

US adds Atlanta airport as enhanced screening location for travelers from Ebola outbreak countries
By Finya Swai - May 23, 2026

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has expanded its enhanced Ebola screening to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport for passengers coming from Congo, Uganda and South Sudan in response to a recent outbreak of the Ebola virus.

The added screening at the world’s busiest airport is part of the federal government’s emergency public health response to stop Ebola from entering the country and to mitigate risks from exposed travelers.

The move builds on mandatory enhanced health screenings put in place at Washington-Dulles International Airport and at Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport for Americans returning from the affected countries. The screenings at Dulles began at 11:59 pm ET on Wednesday and will go into effect in Houston after 10:59 pm CT on Tuesday.

CDC officials said in a statement that the measure was part of a “layered public health approach” that also includes “overseas exit screening, airline illness reporting, and post-arrival public health monitoring.”

Recent Ebola outbreaks and fatalities across Central and East Africa prompted the World Health Organization to declare a public health emergency last week. This strain of Ebola is caused by the Bundibugyo virus and currently has no vaccine, according to the CDC.

The CDC has barred lawful permanent residents and non-U.S. citizens who traveled to Congo, South Sudan or Uganda in the past 21 days from entering the country.

Both Atlanta and Houston are host cities for the FIFA World Cup, which begins June 11 and is taking place across North America.

Andrew Giuliani, the executive director of the White House Task Force for the World Cup, told ESPN that the Congolese national team must isolate for 21 days in Belgium, where it is currently training, to prevent issues when entering the U.S. next month.

The team is scheduled to play Portugal in Houston on June 17 and Uzbekistan in Atlanta on June 27.

The Trump Administration is setting up an Ebola quarantine center for American citizens in Kenya:

https://thekenyatimes.com/politics/trump-deploys-u-s-ebola-quarantine-camp-in-kenya-keeping-infected-americans-out-of-the-u-s/

Trump to Deploy U.S. Ebola Quarantine Camp in Kenya – Keeping Infected Americans Out of the U.S.
By Kennedy Simiyuby - May 27, 2026

The Trump administration is moving quickly to set up a quarantine facility in Kenya for Americans exposed to or infected with Ebola, according to sources familiar with the plan.

The facility, which still needs final approval from the Kenyan government, would be staffed by U.S. public health officers.

It is designed to handle Americans coming from the Ebola outbreak zone in central Africa rather than flying them back to hospitals in the United States.

According to media reports on Tuesday, May 26, some members of the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps have already been told to prepare for deployment.

The move comes as a rare strain of Ebola spreads in the Democratic Republic of Congo and crosses into Uganda.

WHO Declares Ebola Emergency

The World Health Organization declared it a public health emergency of international concern earlier this week. Health officials are racing to contain what has become the third-largest Ebola outbreak on record.

In Congo, there have been 906 suspected cases, including 105 confirmed, and at least 223 suspected deaths along with 10 confirmed fatalities, according to the latest Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.

Uganda has reported seven confirmed cases and one death, most tied to the initial cluster.

This is a clear break from how past Ebola outbreaks were handled. In previous years, Americans who were exposed or fell ill were usually flown back to the U.S. or Europe for treatment in specialized biocontainment units.

Under the new approach, those people would instead be held and treated closer to the outbreak zone in a stable regional hub.

Why Kenya Was Selected

Kenya is being considered as a country that can offer a relatively stable base with good infrastructure and international airport connections.

Kenya is also not reporting active Ebola transmission, making it a practical choice for the U.S. to manage its own citizens without bringing them home during the early stages of the crisis.

The White House and the Department of Health and Human Services did not comment on the reports on Tuesday.

The Wall Street Journal first broke the story, citing people familiar with the planning.

At the same time, the CDC has asked its own staff to volunteer for urgent duty screening travelers at U.S. airports and other entry points.

An internal email obtained by Reuters shows the agency is stepping up precautions even though no Ebola cases have been confirmed in the United States and officials say the risk to the general public remains low.

Ebola spreads through direct contact with bodily fluids from infected people or contaminated surfaces. It causes severe fever, bleeding, and organ failure.

The current circulating Bundibugyo strain is less deadly than some others, but it still demands rapid action.

Health workers in the region are already stretched thin dealing with conflict, poor roads, and limited medical supplies.

The decision to set up the Kenya facility fits with the Trump administration’s moves to tighten travel rules from the affected area.

Officials have signaled they want to limit entry from high-risk zones while continuing to support the international response.

Title 42-style restrictions are reportedly under consideration again to give border authorities more authority to turn away travelers from countries experiencing outbreaks.

Plan Sparks Safety and Political Concerns

Critics may argue that the plan keeps Americans at greater risk by treating them far from the country’s top medical centers.

Supporters say it protects the homeland by stopping potential chains of transmission before they start and avoiding the political backlash that would follow if an Ebola patient were brought to a U.S. city.

Also Read: Americans Affected as Ebola Outbreak Spreads

President William Ruto’s government has not yet publicly confirmed whether it will approve the U.S. request.

The country has worked with American health teams before and hosts several international medical programs, but hosting a dedicated Ebola quarantine site could raise local concerns about safety and stigma.

The move could also trigger mass protests among Kenyan Gen-Z, who have become regular critics of President Ruto’s policies.

Outbreak Spreads Across Central Africa

The outbreak began in Congo’s Ituri Province and has spread despite efforts by local health teams and international organizations such as Doctors Without Borders.

The free movement of people across the border between the DR Congo and Uganda has complicated containment efforts.

Many of the early cases were linked to traditional burial practices and family contacts that facilitated the virus’s spread across porous borders.

U.S. health officials are treating this as a serious but containable threat. The focus now is on rapid testing, contact tracing, and ring vaccination where supplies allow.

The Kenya facility would serve as a safety valve for American citizens working in the region as aid workers, diplomats, business travelers, or journalists.

The U.S. Ebola quarantine camp in Kenya opened today.  Unstated in American press accounts: this camp has created a really contentious political stir within Kenya:

https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/5900320-field-hospital-quarantine-kenya/

US Ebola quarantine facility in Kenya to open Friday
By Nathaniel Weixel - May 28, 2026

Trump administration officials confirmed Thursday that they will not allow any American who was exposed to Ebola back into the country.

A 50-bed field hospital quarantine facility for Americans that is being constructed in Kenya will be operational on Friday, according to senior administration officials.

If someone tests positive or develops symptoms, they will be sent elsewhere for advanced care. Officials weren’t clear where such patients would be sent but said it will not be the U.S.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the State Department are working to identify tertiary care facilities that could take Americans if needed, officials said.

The facility will be located at the Kenyan air force’s Laikipia Air Base, outside the city of Nanyuki. It will eventually include a number of biocontainment and isolation units to hold people who test positive or develop symptoms until they can be transported to more specialized facilities, though the officials did not say when those units would be operational.

Officials said the unit will initially be staffed by 30 U.S. public health officers, who trained for three days earlier this week and are now en route to Kenya. The deployed officers include physicians, nurses, therapists and technologists, one of the officials said.

Officials pushed back on criticism that the public health officers’ training was not thorough enough.

They stressed that some of the team includes staff who responded to the 2014-2015 Ebola outbreak and who worked in a field hospital in Monrovia, Liberia.

“These individuals received extensive training in the use of PPE [personal protective equipment], in the use of proper quarantine techniques, and care specific for individuals if they do test positive and develop symptoms for Ebola,” one of the senior administration officials said.

“Part of them are individuals who have already cared for Ebola in the past. They faced this threat, they know what they’re doing. This is an incredibly high level of care,” the official added.

Staff responding to the 2014 outbreak received eight to 10 days of intensive classroom and hands-on instruction, according to reports at the time, including time spent treating actual Ebola patients.

But unlike the Kenyan facility, the Monrovia field hospital was built to treat international and Liberian healthcare workers, not Americans.

Sending asymptomatic “high risk” Americans to a separate country to quarantine is a significant departure from previous Ebola outbreaks, when Americans exposed to the virus were often flown back to the U.S. for quarantine or treatment at specialized facilities.

The Trump administration has been reluctant to bring back any American citizen who was infected or exposed to Ebola. In August 2014, President Trump repeatedly criticized the Obama administration’s moves to repatriate U.S. citizens.

“Stop the EBOLA patients from entering the U.S. Treat them, at the highest level, over there. THE UNITED STATES HAS ENOUGH PROBLEMS!” he posted at the time.

Trump later followed up: “The U.S. cannot allow EBOLA infected people back. People that go to far away places to help out are great-but must suffer the consequences!”

Administration officials on Thursday denied there were any political motivations at work and instead said it was a matter of expediency to transport people in need of care quickly.

But they did not explain why it was best for asymptomatic Americans, including anyone who has “been potentially exposed to the Ebola virus” to quarantine for 21 days in Kenya.

The administration already evacuated an infected American doctor to Germany. Another doctor who was exposed to the virus was sent to Prague.

“The U.S. has world-leading Ebola treatment capacities, and in the 2014 outbreak we made very sure that any American infected during the response would have a way to get home and get the highest quality treatment here,” said Jeremy Konyndyk, president of Refugees International, who oversaw the U.S. Agency for International Development Ebola response in 2014.

The only time the U.S. has seen domestic transmission of Ebola was in 2014 when a Dallas man was infected during a visit to Liberia. He did not develop symptoms until after returning to the U.S.

Hospital officials came under intense scrutiny at the time for not initially identifying his symptoms as Ebola. He was released after initially seeking treatment before he returned to the hospital and received a laboratory-confirmed diagnosis.

Two nurses who treated him also became infected; they were transferred to specialized U.S. facilities and survived.

The Kenyan High Court Rejects Plan For US Ebola Quarantine Center

https://africa.businessinsider.com/local/markets/kenya-suspends-us-ebola-quarantine-facility-for-exposed-americans-amid-public/rhd4skp?op=1

Kenyan court blocks U.S. Ebola quarantine plan after backlash over proposal to house exposed Americans on African soil
By Ayodeji Adegboyega - 29 May 2026

A Kenyan court has halted a controversial US plan to quarantine Americans exposed to Ebola in the East African nation, igniting a fierce debate over whether Africa is being asked to shoulder the risks of a deadly outbreak that Washington does not want on its own soil.

• A Kenyan court has suspended plans for a US-run Ebola quarantine facility intended for Americans exposed to the virus in Central Africa.
• The proposal sparked fierce opposition from doctors, rights groups and the public, who fear Kenya is being turned into a containment hub for a disease it does not have.
• The dispute comes as the Trump administration insists Ebola cases will not be allowed onto US soil.
• The controversy highlights growing tensions between global health cooperation, national sovereignty and Africa’s role in managing international crises.

The ruling comes after the Trump administration made clear that Ebola cases would not be allowed into the United States, prompting criticism from Kenyan doctors, activists and members of the public who argue that their country should not become a holding ground for a disease it has not recorded.

The High Court in Nairobi suspended the proposed facility pending a legal challenge, preventing Kenyan authorities from admitting anyone exposed to or infected with Ebola under the arrangement.

The decision has transformed what began as a public health initiative into a broader dispute involving sovereignty, global health security and America’s approach to managing infectious disease threats abroad.

Why the plan triggered outrage

US officials had planned to open a 50-bed quarantine centre in Kenya for American citizens believed to have been exposed to Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Uganda.

The facility was expected to be staffed by members of the US Public Health Service and was reportedly ready to begin operations this week.

Washington argued that Kenya’s strategic location made it the most practical option for monitoring potentially exposed Americans near the outbreak zone without bringing them back to the United States.

But that explanation failed to calm critics.

The Katiba Institute, the rights group that filed the lawsuit, warned that the arrangement posed serious public health risks and lacked adequate transparency.

Justice Patricia Nyaundi agreed that the concerns raised were significant enough to justify temporarily stopping the project until the case is heard.

The ruling bars Kenyan authorities from facilitating, approving or operating any Ebola-related quarantine or treatment arrangement involving a foreign government until the court reaches a final decision.

Doctors accuse government of risking national biosecurity

The proposed facility has triggered unusually strong resistance from Kenya’s medical community.

The Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU) accused authorities of conducting “backdoor negotiations” and demanded the release of any agreements linked to the project.

The union questioned why Kenya had been selected despite not being at the centre of the outbreak and despite having no confirmed Ebola cases.

In one of the strongest criticisms yet, the group argued that if the disease was considered too dangerous to be managed on American soil, Kenya should not be expected to bear the risk.

The union’s secretary-general, Davji Bhimji Atellah, said medical workers would not allow Kenya to become a “containment colony” for a deadly virus.

The organisation also objected to reports that the facility would be operated largely by American personnel rather than Kenyan healthcare workers, warning against what it described as an unequal healthcare arrangement.

The union has threatened nationwide industrial action if the government fails to disclose details of the negotiations.

More than a health issue

The controversy goes beyond medicine.

Kenya is East Africa’s largest economy and one of the continent’s most important transport and business hubs. Nairobi serves as a major gateway for trade, tourism, humanitarian operations and international organisations working across the region.

Any perception that the country is becoming a quarantine destination for Ebola-related cases could carry reputational and economic consequences, particularly for tourism, aviation and investor confidence.

The dispute also raises broader questions about how global health emergencies are managed and whether African countries are increasingly being asked to absorb risks that wealthier nations prefer to keep at arm’s length.

That debate has become more intense following statements from the Trump administration that it would not allow Ebola cases into the United States.

The position marks a sharp contrast with previous outbreaks, including the 2014-2016 West African Ebola crisis, when infected American citizens were flown home and treated in specialised facilities.

Outbreak continues to worsen

The legal battle comes as health authorities race to contain a growing Ebola outbreak centred in eastern DRC, with cases also reported in Uganda.

According to the World Health Organization and regional health authorities, more than 1,000 suspected and confirmed cases have been reported, while deaths have surpassed 240.

Health experts believe the real figures could be significantly higher because conflict, displacement and limited access to some affected communities have complicated surveillance efforts.

The outbreak has revived concerns about cross-border transmission in one of Africa’s most interconnected regions.

To support preparedness efforts, the United States has pledged $13.5 million to strengthen Kenya’s Ebola response capacity as part of a wider $112 million regional assistance package.

President William Ruto has called for international cooperation in responding to public health threats, saying diseases do not respect national borders. However, he has not directly addressed the proposed US quarantine facility.

For now, the court’s intervention has stopped the project in its tracks. But the case has already exposed a deeper issue: how far countries are willing to go to protect themselves during global health emergencies, and who ultimately bears the burden when the next outbreak strikes.