By Michael Hill
Correspondent
Before passengers were arriving on her flight from Canada, Rebecca said, “I did have a bit of a concern today. I was watching for people’s passports to see which countries they came from.”
Rebecca of Toronto did a little inspection and vigilance — ahead of the job of U.S. Customs and Border Patrol.
When asked if she looked at other passengers to see if they were ill in any way, Rebecca said, “Yeah, yeah, just looking and seeing if anyone was feverish or sneezing or hot. I really feel it’s a concern with the great travel that we have now. There are people from all over the world waiting up there in the Customs line and you have no idea what they’ve been exposed to but they don’t know about it yet.”
Customs and Border Patrol says it works collaboratively with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and has for some time.
In a statement, Customs says it acts in a manner that minimizes risk to the public. It says CPB personnel review all travelers entering the United States for general overt signs of illnesses — visual observation, questioning and notification of CDC as appropriate — at all U.S. ports of entry.
CBP personnel receive training in illness recognition, but if they identify an individual believed to be infected, CBP will contact CDC and don protective gear.
“It’s dangerous and it’s scary, you know, of course it is, but if you take precautions you’re all right you know,” said Carol Rice.
Rice cleans the cabins of airway airlines. She’s done it for five years but she has never seen the airline urging her and other cleaners to protect themselves like this.
“They got the slippers for your feet in case you have to clean any vomit or stuff like that so you don’t come in contact with it all. We have masks. We have extra gloves, heavier gloves for any situation we come upon. But, this isn’t, we do this every day but they are taking all of the precautions and drilling us everyday,” she said.
The federal government is well aware of all the fears and concerns as Ebola spreads. So next week, the CDC will begin its enhanced medical screening at Newark Liberty International.