WASHINGTON, May 27 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. government is planning to send Americans exposed to Ebola to a new quarantine facility in Kenya instead of flying them to the United States, U.S. media reported Wednesday.
Trump administration officials have instructed the U.S. military to set up a quarantine facility in central Kenya within a week, The Washington Post reported, citing two people familiar with the matter. The field hospital would house Americans exposed to the virus, keeping them in biocontainment units transported from the United States.
The initial plan calls for a 50-bed unit within a week, with potential to expand to 250 beds. Members of the U.S. Public Health Service have already begun training at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland to staff the Kenya facility, according to the report.
The quarantine and treatment center will be designed for Ebola patients who need to get out of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) quickly for care, The Associated Press reported, citing an anonymous official.
It was not immediately clear where in Kenya the facility will be built or whether the Kenyan government has signed off on the plan, the report added.
The U.S. government this month flew an American doctor who developed symptoms to a hospital in Germany, and sent six other Americans for monitoring in Germany and the Czech Republic, the report said.
Earlier this month, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a 30-day suspension of entry into the United States for foreign nationals who had been in the DRC, Uganda or South Sudan in the past 21 days. Last week, the policy was expanded to include lawful permanent residents, or green card holders.
The number of suspected Ebola cases in the DRC has surpassed 1,000 as the outbreak continues to spread across eastern provinces, according to a situation report released Wednesday by the country's Ministry of Health. ■