Seven American aid workers who helped fight an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo are undergoing quarantine at an isolation facility in Kenya under newly imposed U.S. travel rules, the head of their U.S.-based charity told Reuters.
They are the first people to be accommodated at the facility, a project that has faced broad opposition in Kenya and remains at the center of an ongoing court case.
A judge ordered operations at the site suspended until a final ruling is issued. However, U.S. officials and satellite images examined by Reuters show that construction and other activity at the facility have continued.
Under Washington’s new policy, U.S. citizens returning from the Democratic Republic of Congo, which is experiencing an Ebola outbreak, must spend three weeks in a third country before they can enter the United States.
The U.S. government built the bio-isolation unit at an air force base in central Kenya for Americans exposed to the virus in the Democratic Republic of Congo or Uganda. The project has angered many Kenyans, who say the United States is shifting the health risks associated with caring for Ebola patients onto their country.
Kenya’s health minister ordered an immediate stop to construction last month after being found guilty of contempt of court for failing to follow a local court directive suspending work on the project.
“Samaritan’s Purse has seven American Disaster Assistance Response Team staff members there,” Franklin Graham, president and CEO of Samaritan’s Purse, told Reuters in response to questions from the news agency.
“None of them have any symptoms, but they are being quarantined by the Kenyan government for 21 days,” Graham said.
A U.S. State Department official said a group of asymptomatic Americans who had worked on the front lines of the Ebola response had “voluntarily moved to the Kenya facility for precautionary monitoring and isolation.”
“Kenyan authorities have authorized their movement into the facility under the observation of U.S. Public Health Service clinicians,” the official said, adding that the step was taken “strictly out of an abundance of caution.”
Officials at Kenya’s Health Ministry did not immediately answer calls or requests for comment. A senior official at the Kenyan Foreign Ministry said the ministry had no information about the situation.
A separate source familiar with the matter, who requested anonymity, said the group arrived at the central Kenya site on Monday and was sleeping on army cots inside tents.
Some members of the group had worked as medics treating Ebola patients at the Christian aid organization’s treatment centers, the source said. Others held positions that did not involve direct contact with patients, including construction work.
“There is one potential high-risk exposure,” the source said, adding that the workers’ health was being monitored. Kenyan authorities are barring the group from leaving the facility or traveling elsewhere in the country, according to the source.
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