Star Metro - Rubio vows to keep Ebola out of US

"We cannot and will not allow any cases of Ebola to enter the United States," Rubio vowed during a cabinet meeting convened by President Donald Trump at the White House.

Rubio added that the State Department and other agencies "are working very, very hard" to contain the crisis, whose epicenter is in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

His remarks came as the Trump administration worked to open a treatment facility for US citizens in Kenya, instead of facilitating their return for medical assistance on American soil, as has been done in previous Ebola outbreaks.

Asked to comment on the Wall Street Journal's report about the Kenya operation, a Trump administration official confirmed to AFP that the "state-of-the-art facility" was being set up.

"The facility is designed to provide access to high-quality care for Americans who would need to quickly get out of DRC and quarantine without the risks of a lengthy transport back to the US," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Patients will have access to a "full-spectrum" of care for Ebola Virus Disease, the official said, while adding that "each case will be evaluated for forward transport for more advanced care as appropriate in order to maximize patient outcomes."

The Wall Street Journal reported that the facility was still awaiting approval from Kenyan authorities.

One US citizen who contracted Ebola in eastern DRC was taken to an isolation unit in Germany last week, along with his wife and four children.

The patient, medical missionary Peter Stafford, is responding well to treatment, the Charite Hospital in Berlin said Wednesday.

Kenya has not reported any Ebola infections so far, but health authorities are scrambling to curb a fast-growing outbreak of a rare Ebola variant in the DRC.

Rubio said that the US government has "surged assistance to make sure that... nobody comes into this country that has Ebola and creates a problem for us, and we feel like we've got good efforts in place to do that."

US authorities have said that all US citizens who have visited the DRC, Uganda, or South Sudan within the past 21 days will be allowed to enter the country only via airports in Washington, Atlanta, and Houston, where they will be screened.

US permanent residents who have traveled through or stayed in those countries within the past 21 days are temporarily barred from entering the United States under restrictions initially set to last 30 days.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has recorded more than 1,000 suspected Ebola infections, including 223 deaths, so far.

But health officials say the full extent of the outbreak is still unclear, with international authorities warning that the reported figures likely fall short of the true number of cases.

L.Mitchell--SMC