Florida mandates monitoring of all returning from Ebola areas

Florida Gov. Rick Scott issued an executive order on Saturday mandating that anyone returning to Florida from Ebola-affected countries receive twice-daily monitoring for 21 days.

The Florida Department of Health will monitor anyone returning from the countries of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Four people who have already returned will also be monitored, Scott said.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention uses a Web-based system that tracks people who travel to disease-infected areas.

“I want to be clear that we are taking this aggressive action at the state level out of an abundance of caution in the absence of much-needed Ebola risk classification information from the CDC,” Scott said in a statement.

Scott said the monitoring will help the disease from spreading if an individual is infected.

Illinois and New Jersey have made similar orders.

“Again, we are glad we do not have a case of Ebola in Florida, but we will continue to do everything in our power to ensure we never do,” Scott said.