The Trump administration is planning to send Americans who are exposed to Ebola to a new facility in Kenya instead of flying them to the United States, an administration official said Wednesday.

WASHINGTON - The Trump administration is preparing a quarantine facility in Kenya for Americans who have been exposed to Ebola amid the escalating outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, an administration official said Wednesday. The move is a departure from previous Ebola outbreaks, which often involved flying Americans exposed to the virus back to the U.S. for quarantine or treatment. Lawrence Gostin, the director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Center on National and Global Health Law, said the decision to quarantine Americans in Kenya is “unprecedented.” “It is likely to cost American lives,” Gostin wrote in an email. “We have an ethical duty to protect U.S. citizens, especially brave health and humanitarian workers who have cared for Ebola patients. It is impossible to give high quality care to Ebola patients in Kenya, compared with our state-of-the-art facilities in the U.S.” The outbreak in Congo has rapidly worsened, with cases climbing to more than 1,000 and deaths topping 200…

No cases of Ebola disease have been confirmed in the US and the risk to the general public remains low, the CDC said. Read more at straitstimes.com. Read more at straitstimes.com.

No cases of Ebola disease have been confirmed in the US and the risk to the general public remains low, the CDC said. Read more at straitstimes.com. Read more at straitstimes.com.

The approach is a stark contrast to the way previous administrations responded to outbreaks, during which U.S. citizens were brought home to be treated.