By ROB GILLIES
TORONTO (AP) — An Air France flight bound for Detroit was diverted to Montreal after a passenger from the Congo boarded a flight in Paris “in error” amid flight restrictions tied to the Ebola outbreak, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said Thursday.
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A spokesperson for the agency says the passenger “should not have boarded” the plane on Wednesday due to U.S. entry restrictions put in place to reduce the risk of Ebola spreading.
The spokesman said in an email officials “took decisive action and prohibited the flight carrying that traveler from landing at Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport, and instead, diverted to Montreal, Canada.”
Air France said the Congolese passenger was denied entry into the U.S. due to new regulations that travelers from certain countries, including the Congo, can enter only through Washington D.C.
The Department of Homeland Security also said that as of Thursday all U.S.-bound American citizens and permanent residents who have been in Congo, Uganda or South Sudan in the previous 21 days must only enter through Washington Dulles International Airport for enhanced screening.
Craig Currie, spokesman for the Public Health Agency of Canada, said U.S. officials informed Canadian authorities that the plane was refused entry due to their temporary travel restrictions for anyone who traveled to the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, and South Sudan within the previous 21 days.
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Currie said a Public Health Agency of Canada Quarantine Officer in Montreal assessed the traveler and determined they were asymptomatic. He said the traveler has flown back to Paris.
“Air France flight AFR378, along with all other passengers, continued to its original destination of Detroit,” Currie said in an email.
The World Health Organization on Sunday declared the Ebola outbreak a public health emergency of international concern. The outbreak is linked to the Bundibugyo virus, and there is no available vaccine or medicine for it. The strain, which is rarer than other viruses that cause Ebola disease, spread undetected for weeks following the first known death while authorities tested for a more common Ebola virus.
Healthcare workers and aid groups are struggling to respond as experts say the outbreak is much larger than what has been officially reported. Authorities have so far announced 139 suspected deaths and nearly 600 suspected cases.
The WHO’s director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said he was “deeply concerned about the scale and speed of the epidemic” and it’s likely much larger than the official case count. WHO’s chief in Congo said the outbreak could last at least two months.
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