Scott: "No Confirmed Cases Of Ebola In Florida"
Follow CBSMIAMI.COM: Facebook | Twitter
TALLHASSEE (CBSMiami/NSF) -- Florida is monitoring six people who recently traveled to Ebola-affected areas in West Africa, Gov. Rick Scott told state lawmakers during a conference call Tuesday.
All six now under the eye of the state Department of Health are currently classified as "low risk" for having the deadly virus, Scott said. "We have no confirmed cases of Ebola in Florida and we hope we never will," he said.
The brief conference call was held three days after Scott issued an executive order to require 21 days of twice-daily monitoring for anyone returning or planning to return from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, which have been designated by the federal Centers for Disease Control as Ebola-affected areas.
Details of the six individuals being monitored were not available from the Florida Department of Health.
As part of Florida's approach to the virus, 95 of the 210 hospitals in the state have completed Ebola training programs. Also, one of two Florida National Guard "rapid response teams" has completed its initial training. The teams are each 16-member squads that include doctors and nurses who will assist health-care workers if needed.
The moves by Florida came amid Ebola-related actions by the CDC and other states.
On Monday, the CDC altered its advice for state and local officials about the handling of people who are at potential risk of Ebola, telling those who are at highest risk to avoid commercial travel and large public gatherings, even when they aren't showing symptoms of the disease.
Also, the governors of New York and New Jersey have drawn widespread attention for imposing mandatory quarantines for medical workers returning from the three West African countries.
The editors of the New England Journal of Medicine posted an editorial on Monday saying quarantining returning Ebola health-care workers could discourage American medical professionals from volunteering in West Africa, which could undermine the efforts to contain the outbreak.
"The News Service of Florida contributed to this report."
RELATED CONTENT:
