The Joint Chiefs of Staff on Tuesday asked Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel to order a 21-day isolation period for troops returning from fighting Ebola in West Africa, the Pentagon said.
Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby said Hagel supports the decision by Army leaders to put outgoing mission commander Maj. Gen. Darryl Williams and his team in isolation for 21 days in Vicenza, Italy, after their return from Liberia, but has made no decision on the recommendation to extend the policy to all service members.
“He’s got it, he’ll examine it and we’ll go from there,” Kirby told reporters.
He refused to be more specific about the recommendation by the president’s top military advisers, and he said it was not intended to drive a public discussion about what the government in general or other agencies should do to halt the spread of infection. “It was simply meant to address their concerns about their people and their families.”
Williams and 10 other soldiers were the first to return from Liberia, where U.S. troops are working to set up treatment centers and other infrastructure to care for Ebola patients, and Army leaders wanted to take a conservative approach to protect them and their families from the disease, Kirby said. Army leaders have ordered that other soldiers who return will join them in isolation, for now.
“We’ll see whether this is the right protocol moving forward for everybody,” he said.
Some 700 U.S. troops are in West Africa — about 600 in Liberia and 100 in Senegal — and that is expected to grow to up to 3,900 in the coming weeks. Pentagon officials have said they would not be treating patients directly.
Over the weekend, Williams, commander of U.S. Army Africa, handed over command of the mission to Maj. Gen. Gary Volesky of the 101st Airborne Division.
This article was originally published at 2:39 p.m. and has been updated.
