U.S. bars citizens in Congo from returning during Ebola outbreak

The Trump administration on Monday barred U.S. citizens in the Democratic Republic of the Congo from returning home amid an Ebola outbreak, Ars Technica reported. Americans currently in the DRC or who have recently traveled there were placed on a do-not-board list under transportation authority known as Title 49.

They cannot travel back to the U.S. until they have spent 21 days in a third country. The order was independently confirmed by Politico on Tuesday. Reuters and Politico reported that roughly two dozen Americans who had been set to board flights home on Tuesday have already been blocked by the new rule.

It remains unclear if the bar also applies to government workers. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has at least two dozen employees working in the DRC. As of July 14, the DRC government reported 1,963 Ebola cases and 719 deaths through the World Health Organization.

On Tuesday the World Health Organization said it has less than half the funding it needs to properly respond to the outbreak. The United States withdrew its WHO membership, removing a significant funding source. WHO said last week that four out of every five new Ebola cases have no link to known cases.

Officials warned that the true scale of the outbreak could be two- to four-times larger than current case counts.