Paul Bass Photo
Authorities cleared out the Giaimo federal building and closed down Orange Street between Elm and Chapel Thursday morning after a man at a social security office, who had recently traveled to Africa, displayed flu-like symptoms
Officials from the city fire, police, health, and emergency management departments (pictured above) converged on the scene around 11:30 a.m.
They were responding to a call from a caseworker in a social security office inside the federal building.
The caseworker said that a man who had recently traveled to Africa had gotten sick and was exhibiting flu-like symptoms, according to Assistant Fire Chief Matthew Marcarelli.
Out of “an abundance of caution,” authorities made the decision to clear the area until they could obtain more information, Marcarelli said.
They soon learned that the man was “well outside” the 21-day incubation period for ebola, he said; the man had been back in the U.S. “over 30 days.” Marcarelli said it also turned out the man had been to Somalia in East Africa, not in West Africa, where the ebola epidemic has been centered.
The building and street were then reopened, and the man was being transferred to Yale-New Haven Hospital for treatment.
