New Jersey Releases Ebola Protocol Details
TRENTON, N.J. (CBSNewYork/AP) -- New Jersey's protocol to manage patients being screened for possible Ebola includes providing financial assistance to anyone who loses income because of a state-ordered quarantine.
That detail and others are in a memo sent from the state Department of Health to other officials made public Friday. The state says the guidelines were not completed until Thursday evening.
It represents the first time Gov. Chris Christie's administration has released full details of the state's protocols for dealing with people who have Ebola or are at risk of having it.
Earlier this week, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said New York state and New York City will create a program to offer financial incentives and employment protections to encourage medical workers to go to West Africa to fight Ebola.
The incentives would ensure that health care workers heading to West Africa to treat patients with the deadly disease would have their pay, health care and employment status continue when they return.
Cuomo and Christie's joint policy of quarantining those suspected of having direct contact with Ebola patients has been criticized by health experts and federal officials who say it could discourage medical workers from traveling to Africa.
On Sunday, Cuomo backpedaled on his insistence that medical workers returning to New York from Ebola-stricken countries would have to undergo a mandatory 21-day quarantine at a government-regulated facility.
Cuomo said health care workers and citizens who have had exposure to Ebola patients in West Africa will only be asked to stay in their homes for the 21-day quarantine.
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