During a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) telebriefing Friday, Texas Health commissioner, Dr.  David Lakey discussed the epidemiological work being done to contact trace those possibly exposed to the 1st Ebola patient in the US, Thomas Eric Duncan.

“A lot of work is taking place a combination of a team of epidemiologist that consistent of CDC personnel and state and local epidemiologists are working as a team.  They’ve been doing a lot of hard work to get our hands around the numbers, Lakey said.

” After the initial discussions with the hospital and with the patient there were approximately 100 individuals that we needed to reach out to, that was the number we put out yesterday.  After reaching out to those individuals, there’s now approximately 50 individuals that we need — that we felt we need to follow on a daily basis.  Now most of those individuals are low risk.

“There are about 10 individuals that are at higher risk, and so we continue to watch those individuals very carefully.  So that’s — again, the epidemiology that has been taking place at the hospital and in the community.  The individuals we have concern about, the 50 individuals that need to be followed daily, every day a public health — member of the public health team goes and visits those individuals.  Each of those individuals has their temperature checked twice a day and I want everyone to know all the individuals are doing well.  There’s no additional individuals that have any symptoms that would be consistent with Ebola at this time.”

It has also been reported that the Dallas apartment where Mr. Duncan was sick with Ebola and four family members were quarantined is now in the process of being cleaned, according to a CNN report. The cleaning process is expected to take several days. Public Information Officer for Dallas, Sana Syed, posted photos of the Hazmat crew involved in the Ebola clean-up on her Twitter page.

In addition, the quarantined family member have been moved to an undisclosed, private 4-bedroom residence in Dallas, which was arranged with the help of someone in the local faith-based community.