Update: 1:00 p.m.
A Frontier aircraft that came to Colorado after it carried a nurse diagnosed with Ebola is still out of service, an airline official said Wednesday.
On Tuesday, Ken Greene, senior vice president of operations at the Denver International Airport, said the plane was back in service. But Frontier spokesman Todd Lehmacher said Wednesday that Greene was incorrect.
"It's still out of service," Lehmacher says. "We're replacing several things, seat covers, carpets, and environmental filters. We've gone above and beyond what the CDC requested. The CDC has told us the aircraft is safe to go."
Last week, the aircraft stopped in Denver for cleaning after it carried the nurse between Cleveland and Dallas. She had treated a Liberian man who died from the virus in Dallas.
Crew members who flew on the aircraft have shown no symptoms of the sickness, Dr. Larry Wolk, the state’s top medical officer, said in a Tuesday press conference.
Greene told reporters that airlines have been told to separate sick passengers in flight as part of the increased safety measures from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. If there’s a suspected case of Ebola on a flight, "the aircraft may be held in a location remote from the gate," said Greene.
The sick person would then be removed from the aircraft and transported to a local hospital, Greene explained.
Additionally, travelers from the three West African countries most impacted by the Ebola virus will fly to one of five airports for enhanced screenings. Denver International Airport is not one of them, and has no direct flights to West Africa.
The airport is regularly practicing infectious disease safety drills and added signage warning about Ebola in August to its international arrival area.
Facts, not fear
To learn more about Ebola, Wolk urged the public to seek out credible sources of information, like the state's new Ebola website and hotline (1-877-462-2911).
"The general public has a lot of resources available to them," Wolk says. He urged people to "really go to a trusted source for your information and not get drawn into speculation, rumor, bias, whatever."
To date, Colorado has no Ebola cases.
