French health officials on Thursday said screening measures for Ebola among passengers arriving from Guinea, one of the main West African countries affected by the deadly disease, would start Saturday at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, reports FRANCE 24.
France became the fourth country –after Britain, the United States and Canada–to announce screening checks for the virus at its main international airport, as the United Nations warned Ebola was outpacing efforts to combat the epidemic.
French health minister Marisol Touraine said medical teams, including Red Cross officials, would check the temperatures of passengers arriving on flights from Guinea.
The announcement came as Spanish authorities said they had isolated an Air France plane at Madrid airport and activated emergency health procedures after one of the passengers was reported to have a fever and shivers in what is being treated as a suspected Ebola case, officials said Thursday.
A Spanish Airport Authority spokeswoman said the passenger jet had arrived in Madrid from Paris. She said the plane was taken to a special area of the airport complex and the passengers were being kept on board.
Officials spoke on condition of anonymity in keeping with the regulations of their respective offices.
The announcement came a day after French President François Hollande held a video conference Wednesday with his US counterpart Barack Obama, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, British Prime Minister David Cameron and Italian premier Matteo Renzi to discuss their response to the virus.
EU health ministers are meeting in Brussels on Thursday to discuss measures to deal with the epidemic, which has claimed more than 4,000 lives, mainly from the worst-affected countries of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
An EU statement released on the eve of the meeting said the risk of the virus spreading from an Ebola patient in Spain was low.
Last week, Spain recorded its first case of a person contracting the disease in Europe, when a Spanish nurse, who treated a patient who had arrived from Liberia, developed Ebola symptoms and tested positive for the disease.
The UK became the first EU country to introduce screening measures this week at Heathrow’s Terminal 1, where flights from the affected countries arrive. The measures will be extended to Gatwick airport and Eurostar by the end of the week.
Read more of this report from FRANCE 24.