NBC News Crew Ordered Into Ebola Quarantine After Breaking Promise
Saturday, 11 Oct 2014 02:16 PM
New Jersey health officials have issued a mandatory quarantine order for an NBC News crew that worked with an American cameraman who contracted Ebola in Liberia, the state health department said Saturday.
The order went into effect Friday night after the NBC crew failed to honor a voluntary 21-day isolation agreement, state officials said.
Freelance cameraman Ashoka Mukpo is receivingtreatment at Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, which said on Friday that he had shown modest improvement and was in stable condition .
The crew's other members have not exhibited anysymptoms , state officials said.
The NBC crew had agreed with New Jersey health officials to sequester themselves upon return the United States but then failed to do so, Donna Leusner, a spokeswoman for the New Jersey Department of Health, said in a statement.
One member of the crew, NBC Chief Medical Editor Nancy Snyderman, who is a physician, was reportedly seen in public near her New Jersey home this week.
The death this week of the first person diagnosed with Ebola in the United States has increased fears that Ebola could spread outside West Africa, where it has killed more than 4,000 people, and U.S. health authorities are stepping up efforts to stop the spread of the deadly virus.
Medical teams at New York's JFK airport, armed with Ebola questionnaires and temperature guns, began screening travelers from three West African nations on Saturday.
The mandatory quarantine was issued late Friday and will ensure the group remains confined until Oct. 22, the end of a 21-day maximum incubation period for Ebola, Leusner said.
"The NBC crew remains symptom-free, so there is no reason for concern of exposure to the community," she said.
She would not provide additional details about the crew, its size, and what led to the mandatory order being issued, citing patient privacy.
An NBC representative told The Associated Press that NBC News fully supports the guidelines set by local health authorities
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
© 2014 Newsmax. All rights reserved.The order went into effect Friday night after the NBC crew failed to honor a voluntary 21-day isolation agreement, state officials said.
Freelance cameraman Ashoka Mukpo is receiving
The crew's other members have not exhibited any
The NBC crew had agreed with New Jersey health officials to sequester themselves upon return the United States but then failed to do so, Donna Leusner, a spokeswoman for the New Jersey Department of Health, said in a statement.
One member of the crew, NBC Chief Medical Editor Nancy Snyderman, who is a physician, was reportedly seen in public near her New Jersey home this week.
Medical teams at New York's JFK airport, armed with Ebola questionnaires and temperature guns, began screening travelers from three West African nations on Saturday.
The mandatory quarantine was issued late Friday and will ensure the group remains confined until Oct. 22, the end of a 21-day maximum incubation period for Ebola, Leusner said.
"The NBC crew remains symptom-free, so there is no reason for concern of exposure to the community," she said.
An NBC representative told The Associated Press that NBC News fully supports the guidelines set by local health authorities
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.