California is the latest state to issue a 21-day quarantine order for anyone returning to the United States from Ebola-stricken areas, the state Department of Public Heath announced Wednesday.
Unlike New York, Maine and New Jersey, this is not a blanket quarantine. The state leaves that decision to county health officials to determine if a person should be in seclusion.
“Today we’re establishing a statewide, standard protocol requiring some level of quarantine for those at highest risk of contracting and spreading Ebola,” CDPH director Dr. Ron Chapman said. “This order will protect the health and safety of Californians and support the state’s local health officers’ existing authority to develop protections against disease spread.”
The order only applies to those who have come in contact with Ebola patients. Those who were not exposed to Ebola-infected persons are not affected.
The Ebola virus is communicable only through direct contact with blood and bodily fluids and has a 21-day incubation period.
There has not an Ebola case in California, though a Stanford University doctor is currently under voluntary quarantine after having traveled to Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone to help combat the Ebola epidemic there.
