--- title: Ebola: Illinois Orders Mandatory Quarantine for Certain Travelers description: A 21-day quarantine is mandatory for anyone who had direct contact with an Ebola patient in Sierra Leone, Guinea or Liberia canonical: https://time.com/3539884/illinois-ebola-quarantine/ author: Nolan Feeney article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-10-26T13:37:17.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T11:00:58.878Z article:section: Health og:title: Ebola: Illinois Orders Mandatory Quarantine for Certain Travelers og:description: "This protective measure is too important to be voluntary" og:url: https://time.com/3539884/illinois-ebola-quarantine/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8744771d78512bb7/698762ce428a9e5da9cc4bef/ebola-illinois.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3500 og:image:height: 1969 og:image:alt: An Office of Field Operations Officer conducts an interview with a passenger at Washington Dulles International Airport og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Ebola: Illinois Orders Mandatory Quarantine for Certain Travelers twitter:description: "This protective measure is too important to be voluntary" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8744771d78512bb7/698762ce428a9e5da9cc4bef/ebola-illinois.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Illinois Orders Mandatory Ebola Quarantine for Certain Travelers > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators.  by [Nolan Feeney](https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/)  ## Nolan Feeney Oct 26, 2014 1:37 PM UTC  An Office of Field Operations Officer conducts an interview with a passenger arriving from either Guinea, Sierra Leone, or Liberia at Washington Dulles International Airport on Oct. 16, 2014. An Office of Field Operations Officer conducts an interview with a passenger arriving from either Guinea, Sierra Leone, or Liberia at Washington Dulles International Airport on Oct. 16, 2014. Reuters  by [Nolan Feeney](https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/)  ## Nolan Feeney Oct 26, 2014 1:37 PM UTC People in Illinois who have had direct contact with an Ebola patient in certain African countries [must now undergo a quarantine for 21 days](http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-illinois-ebola-quarantine-20141025-story.html). Illinois Governor Pat Quinn signed an order on Friday that affects medical workers and other “high-risk” travelers who have been around Ebola patients in Sierra Leone, Guinea or Liberia, the Chicago _Tribune_ reports. “This protective measure is too important to be voluntary,” he said in a statement. “While we have no confirmed cases of the Ebola virus in Illinois, we will continue to take every safeguard necessary to protect first responders, health care workers and the people of Illinois.” Similar orders, which exceed federal recommendations, are in effect in New York and New Jersey for travelers landing in New York City-area airports, including Newark in New Jersey. \[[_Chicago Tribune_](http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-illinois-ebola-quarantine-20141025-story.html)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3539884/illinois-ebola-quarantine/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3539884/illinois-ebola-quarantine/"},"headline":"Illinois Orders Mandatory Ebola Quarantine for Certain Travelers","datePublished":"2014-10-26T13:37:17.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T11:00:58.878Z","description":"A 21-day quarantine is mandatory for anyone who had direct contact with an Ebola patient in Sierra Leone, Guinea or Liberia","url":"https://time.com/3539884/illinois-ebola-quarantine/","keywords":["ebola","chicago","Illinois","Infectious Disease"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8744771d78512bb7/698762ce428a9e5da9cc4bef/ebola-illinois.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Nolan Feeney","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8744771d78512bb7/698762ce428a9e5da9cc4bef/ebola-illinois.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"An Office of Field Operations Officer conducts an interview with a passenger at Washington Dulles International Airport","caption":"An Office of Field Operations Officer conducts an interview with a passenger at Washington Dulles International Airport","creditText":"Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/ebola/","name":"ebola"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3539884/illinois-ebola-quarantine/","name":"Illinois Orders Mandatory Ebola Quarantine for Certain Travelers"}}]}] ```