The United States, which is preparing to welcome a wave of World Cup visitors, urged other nations on Tuesday to boost efforts to halt the spread of Ebola, including through travel restrictions.
“The United States has stepped up. Now the world must do more to step up as well,” a State Department official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“Other countries must do their part to ensure this outbreak does not spread further,” the official said, urging more funding to address the outbreak and “implementing commonsense restrictions on travel from the affected area.”
The outbreak was first identified last month in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo, with cases since reported in neighbouring Uganda.
US President Donald Trump’s administration has vowed to make every effort to block the virus from entering the country, including by setting up an Ebola treatment centre in Kenya for American citizens.
That project has prompted mass protests in Kenya, with at least one person shot dead on Tuesday in clashes with police, amid opposition to the idea of bringing potential carriers into the country.
The digital news outlet Axios reported that the Trump administration has pressured European countries to enact stricter travel restrictions over the virus.
The State Department said on Tuesday that Secretary of State Marco Rubio had spoken with EU chief Ursula von der Leyen “to discuss US and European coordination and response efforts to the Ebola outbreak.”
“The department’s highest priority and focus remain protecting the health of the American people and preventing this Ebola outbreak from reaching our shores,” spokesperson Thomas Piggott said.
The United States has banned non-Americans who have been in the DRC, Uganda or South Sudan in the previous 21 days from visiting.
For the World Cup — co-hosted by the United States, Mexico and Canada and kicking off Thursday — the DR Congo team is not expected to be impacted by the ban, as they have been training in Europe for weeks.
However, the team’s warm-up match against Chile on Tuesday was moved from a city in Spain to France due to public concerns over the virus.
AFP
