By Trevor Hunnicutt
WASHINGTON, June 24 (Reuters) – The White House is planning to seek more than $1.4 billion in new funds from Congress to address the widening Ebola virus outbreak as soon as Wednesday, according to a Trump administration official.
The request, which is set to be included in a larger supplemental funding request, would include $800 million for humanitarian crisis responses.
That $800 million will fund a quarantine center in Kenya for Americans exposed to the virus as well as supplies, treatment, contact tracing, a regional logistics network and infection control practices.
U.S. officials are also seeking $500 million in global health security funds they say are needed to prevent the virus from spreading to the United States. That funding would include disease surveillance, laboratory capacity, and cross-border coordination, and potential partnerships with multilateral organizations and the private sector, the official said.
Another $90 million would go to diplomatic efforts, including evacuations and transportation of U.S. citizens with the virus to treatment facilities, according to the official. The funding request was not previously reported.
Congo’s Ebola outbreak is linked to the rare Bundibugyo strain of the virus. It has infected more than 1,000 people and killed 267 – generating the largest number of confirmed cases within the first month of any episode of the disease, the World Health Organization said this week.
The request for funding comes as a doctor who recently returned to France from a humanitarian mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo tested positive for Ebola, marking the country’s first confirmed case linked to the current outbreak.
U.S. officials have asked European officials to implement tougher travel measures and contribute more to the Ebola response, according to one such official. In recent days, they have also expressed frustration with the lack of response from their European counterparts, the person said.
Washington has also come under criticism for its own cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development and African public health efforts, prior to the outbreak.
The U.S. has pledged hundreds of millions of dollars to the Ebola response so far, and is building a controversial quarantine center in Kenya for American citizens, saying the priority is keeping Ebola from reaching the U.S.
In May, the U.S. banned non-citizens who had traveled to the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda or South Sudan in recent weeks from entering the United States. The ban was later extended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to green card holders who have been in those countries in the previous 21 days.
(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
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