WASHINGTON — The United States will require all international air passengers bound for the country to formally declare that they have not been in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in the previous 21 days, as part of heightened measures to prevent the introduction of Ebola.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) order takes effect after 11:59 pm Eastern Standard Time on 3 November 2026. From that point, every passenger boarding a flight to the United States from any foreign country must provide a paper or electronic attestation confirming they have not been present in the DRC during the three weeks before departure.
The CDC had already barred travellers — including US citizens and nationals — who spent time in the DRC within 21 days of their flight from boarding commercial aircraft bound for the United States. The new attestation requirement strengthens enforcement of that rule and applies universally, regardless of the passenger’s nationality or the flight’s point of origin.
Airlines will be responsible for collecting the declarations and ensuring compliance. The CDC is holding briefing calls with major US and foreign carriers to detail how the requirement should be implemented. Passengers who fail to complete the attestation will not be allowed to board.
Additional restrictions remain in place for travellers who have been in Uganda or South Sudan. Non-US citizens who visited those countries within the previous 21 days are barred from entering the United States, while US citizens and nationals returning from those countries (but not the DRC) will be routed through designated airports for enhanced public health screening.
The measures respond to the ongoing Bundibugyo virus disease outbreak centred in the DRC, which has become the most geographically widespread Ebola epidemic on record. No cases linked to the current outbreak have been reported in the United States to date.