US-bound passengers must make Ebola declaration

Caribbean Air­lines has ad­vised pas­sen­gers trav­el­ling to the Unit­ed States to com­plete a new health at­tes­ta­tion form be­fore check­ing in, as part of mea­sures in­tro­duced by US health au­thor­i­ties to guard against the spread of Ebo­la.

The re­quire­ment takes ef­fect at 11.59 pm East­ern Stan­dard Time on Tues­day, No­vem­ber 3, and ap­plies to all pas­sen­gers board­ing in­ter­na­tion­al flights to the Unit­ed States, in­clud­ing US cit­i­zens and per­ma­nent res­i­dents.

In a no­tice is­sued to trav­ellers, Caribbean Air­lines said pas­sen­gers must com­plete and sub­mit the form be­fore check-in to avoid de­lays. The form is avail­able through the air­line's on­line por­tal.

The or­der was is­sued by the US Cen­ters for Dis­ease Con­trol and Pre­ven­tion (CDC) on Oc­to­ber 22 and amend­ed on Oc­to­ber 28 to make clear that it cov­ers every­one trav­el­ling on an air­craft, in­clud­ing flight crew and crew mem­bers trav­el­ling in a non-op­er­at­ing ca­pac­i­ty.

Un­der the or­der, pas­sen­gers must con­firm that they have not been phys­i­cal­ly present in the De­mo­c­ra­t­ic Re­pub­lic of the Con­go (DRC) dur­ing the 21 days be­fore board­ing a flight to the US.

This in­cludes pas­sen­gers who have tran­sit­ed through a DRC air­port, even if they did not leave the air­craft or air­port.

The 21-day pe­ri­od re­flects the max­i­mum in­cu­ba­tion pe­ri­od for Ebo­la, the time be­tween a per­son be­ing ex­posed to the virus and de­vel­op­ing symp­toms.

Any­one who has been in the DRC dur­ing that pe­ri­od will not be per­mit­ted to board a US-bound flight un­til the 21-day pe­ri­od has elapsed. They may trav­el from the 22nd day, pro­vid­ed they meet the oth­er en­try re­quire­ments.

The CDC said air­lines are re­spon­si­ble for check­ing that each per­son has com­plet­ed and signed the de­c­la­ra­tion be­fore board­ing. Any­one who fails to sub­mit it, and does not have a US gov­ern­ment ex­emp­tion, must be re­fused board­ing.

Air­lines must al­so keep copies of com­plet­ed at­tes­ta­tions for at least 42 days af­ter the pas­sen­ger's flight ar­rives in the US and pro­vide them to Amer­i­can au­thor­i­ties up­on re­quest.

The CDC said the mea­sure is in­tend­ed to pre­vent Ebo­la from be­ing in­tro­duced in­to the US through in­ter­na­tion­al air trav­el. How­ev­er, it stressed that the over­all risk to the Amer­i­can pub­lic and trav­ellers re­mains low.

The re­quire­ment ap­plies to US cit­i­zens, na­tion­als and Green Card hold­ers, as well as for­eign na­tion­als trav­el­ling to the coun­try. Pro­vid­ing false or mis­lead­ing in­for­ma­tion on the form could re­sult in crim­i­nal fines and im­pris­on­ment.

The or­der is sched­uled to re­main in ef­fect un­til De­cem­ber 18, un­less it is amend­ed or with­drawn ear­li­er.