PASSENGERS flying to the United States from three Ebola-stricken countries will have to fly into one of five designated American airports for additional screening, including having their temperature taken, U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson announced Tuesday.

    The restriction was immediately criticized by House Republicans who want a complete ban on travelers coming from West African countries with high Ebola infection rates.

    Starting yesterday U.S. time, airline passengers coming from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea must fly into New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey, Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, Washington Dulles International Airport or Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Johnson said.

    Those airports already receive about 94 percent of travelers coming to the United States from the three West African countries. There are currently no direct flights from those countries into the United States. About 150 passengers from West Africa arrive in the States daily. Travelers not already flying into the designated airports will have to rebook flights, Johnson said.

    At all land and seaports, immigration officers have been instructed to pull aside anyone who has traveled to Liberia, Sierra Leone or Guinea in the previous 21 days. The Department of Homeland Security tracks airline manifests and other travel information of people who have traveled in West Africa.

    The Obama administration could add more travel restrictions later, Johnson said.

    “We are continually evaluating whether additional restrictions or added screening and precautionary measures are necessary to protect the American people, and will act accordingly,” he said.

    But House Judiciary Committee Chairman Robert W. Goodlatte said the current restrictions fall short of what is needed to stop the virus from spreading in the country.

    “The administration must do more to protect Americans,” Goodlatte said in a statement.

    Goodlatte plans to introduce a resolution in the House in favor of blocking all foreign nationals from Ebola-stricken countries from entering the country. Obama administration officials and health experts have said that such a ban would make it harder to track people who may be carrying the virus because travelers would try to evade the ban by going overland into neighboring countries before flying overseas.

    White House press secretary Josh Earnest said the president has concluded for now that a travel ban would hurt, not help.

    (SD-Agencies)