BRAINTREE — A Braintree medical center was briefly closed and a patient who had been to West Africa was isolated outside the facility after complaining of headaches and muscle aches, officials at the facility said.
Public safety officials had closed Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates, citing “ebola protocol,” because of the complaints of the patient, who had traveled to Liberia.
“Out of an abundance of caution we immediately notified authorities and the patient was securely removed from the building and put into an ambulance now headed to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center,” Ben Kruskal, chief of infectious disease at Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates, said in a statement. Kruskal said the patient had been to Liberia.
“The building was closed briefly but has now re-opened,” the statement said. “We are working closely with the Department of Public Health who will determine next steps.”
Earlier Sunday, outside Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates, police cruisers, fire trucks, and ambulances lined Grossman Drive, and the parking lot was cordoned off by yellow police tape.
“Ebola protocol is in place,” said Joe Zanca of Braintree Fire Department. “We don’t know if he actually has Ebola.”
William Cash, a Braintree firefighter, said “no one is leaving.”
Public Safety officials clustered near the entry of the parking lot near a parked Braintree EMS ambulance with its lights flashing. Five minutes before 4 p.m. the ambulance circled the parking lot and then left the facility headed south on Grossman Drive.
Minutes later a middle-aged man wearing a surgical mask and sitting upright on a stretcher was wheeled across Grossman Drive and into another waiting ambulance.
Police, fire officials, and emergency medical services are at the scene, along with a hazmat team, Zanca said.
Rushlau can be reached at katherine.rushlau@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @katyrushlau