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NY: Mandatory, 21-day Quarantine For Medical Workers

NY: Mandatory, 21-day Quarantine For Medical Workers

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo revised guidelines Sunday for the mandatory, 21-day quarantining of medical workers returning from West Africa that he and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie ordered two days earlier, bringing New York closer in line with federal protocols, CBSNews reports.

Saying the federal health guidelines are inadequate, Cuomo and Christie announced a mandatory quarantine program Friday for medical workers and other arriving airline passengers who have had contact with Ebola victims in West Africa. Illinois soon followed suit. The incubation period for Ebola is 21 days.

Christie defended quarantining Sunday, saying it is necessary to protect the public. He predicted it “will become a national policy sooner rather than later.”

“I don’t believe when you’re dealing with something as serious as this that we can count on a voluntary system,” said Christie, who is expected to run for the Republican nomination for president in 2016, CBS reports.

Earlier this month, four members of a family in Texas that Ebola victim Thomas Eric Duncan stayed with before he died were confined to their home under armed guard after failing to comply with a request not to leave their apartment, according to CBS. Also, 75 Dallas hospital workers were asked to sign legally binding documents in which they agreed to stay away from public places and not use mass transit.

Kaci Hickox, the first nurse forcibly quarantined in New Jersey under the state’s new policy, complained in a phone interview with CNN that her isolation at a hospital was “inhumane,” adding: “We have to be very careful about letting politicians make health decisions.”

Returning U.S. health care workers should be “treated like conquering heroes and not stigmatized for the tremendous work that they have done,” said Samantha Power, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations who is on a trip to West Africa.

Check out this Associated Press video.