—St. Cloud Times

Minnesota health officials and Gov. Mark Dayton announced a series of restrictions to protect citizens from the danger of infection of the deadly disease Ebola while striving to protect people’s freedoms.

They made the safeguards to keep people in Minnesota from panicking or taking unnecessary actions against people from Liberia, Sierra Leon and Guinea. These West Africa countries are those hardest hit by the Ebola epidemic.

The safeguards divide those returning from West Africa counties into four types. The most severe restrictions apply to those who provided health care to an Ebola patient and have a known exposure. The least restrictive apply to those who were not providing health care in an affected country.

The state is monitoring about 30 people, said Kris Ehresmann, director of infectious disease for the Minnesota Department of Health.

Here is how the safeguards work, according to a Minnesota Department of Health news release:

State officials will be notified by Homeland Security or the Federal Aviation Administration of people in Minnesota who have traveled to the Ebola-affected counties. Also, customs agents and border patrol officials will check passports at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport to see about recent travel in the West Africa counties.

At that point, Minnesota Department of Health officials will determine the risk group into which the traveler falls.

–The MDH case management includes twice-daily monitoring by agency staff.

–None of the individuals being monitored will be allowed to use public transportation for trips lasting longer than three hours, regardless of exposure history.

–All travelers will be allowed to have family members in their homes.

–Only those travelers who treated an Ebola patient and have been exposed will be required to be restricted in their home and have no physical contact with others.

–All travelers will be required to log all activities and close contacts during the 21 days. The 21-day limit is linked to the known exposure danger after Ebola contact.

–Any situation involving work with children will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.

These safeguards appear to be a reasonable effort to contain any danger from the Ebola outbreak. We live in a world in which a dangerous, infectious disease is one flight away from Minnesota. However, we have to be reasonable in protecting public health versus stomping on individual liberties.