COLUMBUS, Ohio – State officials say there are now 164 people in Ohio, including one Columbus resident, being monitored for Ebola because they had contact or potential contact with the Texas nurse who visited the Akron area before being diagnosed with the virus.
Meanwhile, Amber Vinson’s family says doctors no longer detect Ebola in her body and federal officials say passengers arriving in the United States from the three virus-stricken west African nations will be watched for 21 days.
One of the people being watched is a Columbus resident referred to as a “case contact” who had no direct contact with Vinson, Columbus Health Commissioner Dr. Teresa Long said.
Local public health officials have investigated more than a dozen possible cases, including a hoax called in by a woman last Thursday. Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman says the woman will get a bill for $2,800 for the fire, police and health department responders who went to her home. Criminal charges have not been ruled out, he said.
Officials have said the number of people being monitored in Ohio will fluctuate daily, but the number of people quarantined in their homes stands at three. No one in Ohio has been diagnosed with Ebola.
One of those quarantined is Vinson’s stepfather in his home in Tallmadge. Vinson contracted Ebola after caring for the only person to die in the U.S. of the disease at a Dallas hospital.
A Vinson family statement released Wednesday through a media consultant says officials at Emory University Hospital and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention couldn’t detect Ebola in Amber Vinson as of Tuesday evening. Doctors usually do two tests a day apart before saying they can’t detect the virus. It’s unclear how many tests Vinson has had.
The statement says Vinson’s mother spoke to her Wednesday and Vinson has been approved for transfer from isolation.
Vinson is being treated at Emory, near Atlanta. Emory officials won’t comment on her status.
Seventeen of those being monitored in Ohio are having their temperature taken twice daily by public health officials and are being asked not to travel on commercial carriers.
Federal health officials say anyone coming to the United States from Liberia, Sierra Leone or Guinea, will be monitored for three weeks.
They say starting Monday, those travelers will have to report in with health officials each day, and take their temperature twice a day.
The measure applies to anyone who has visited one of the three Ebola-stricken countries, including aid workers and journalists.