COLUMBUS, Ohio — At least seven people in northeast Ohio are under voluntary quarantine and being monitored because they had contact with a Texas nurse who was diagnosed with Ebola shortly after visiting the area last weekend, health officials said Thursday.
Five of those are in Summit County, said Dr. Marguerite Erme, medical director for the county’s public health agency. The other two are in Cuyahoga County, which includes Cleveland.
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Solon City Schools in suburban Cleveland canceled classes in two buildings Thursday after officials learned a staff member might have flown on the Frontier Airlines plane on which Dallas nurse Amber Joy Vinson was a passenger. And Akron closed an elementary school after learning that the parent of a student had contact with the nurse.
Several other districts reported employees were staying home after determining Vinson may have been in the proximity of those people or other people with whom they had close contact.
The state is recommending that Ohio hospitals conduct drills this week to practice how they’d interact with a potential Ebola patient and use protective equipment.
Officials in Ohio also were told the nurse’s mother was quarantined in Dallas, she said.
The nurse, 29-year old Amber Vinson, visited family in the Akron area last weekend, then flew from Cleveland to Dallas on Monday.
Vinson had treated the Liberian man who died of the disease in a Dallas hospital. In Ohio, she was conscientious, limited her movements and mostly stayed at a home, but she did meet some friends and visit a retail store, Summit County health officials said.
“I think she was aware of what she had been through in Dallas, and so while she was here she was very careful around her family and anybody else that she was in contact (with),” said Gene Nixon, the county’s health commissioner.
On Wednesday, Vinson was transferred from a Dallas hospital to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta.
Police said Vinson stayed at the home of her mother and stepfather in Tallmadge, northeast of Akron. The home has been cordoned off with yellow tape.
Erme said the store that the nurse visited was closed Thursday as officials evaluated updated containment guidelines just issued by the state. Health officials refused to identify the store and the people in quarantine, saying they didn’t want to raise undue concern when there’s no evidence that the individuals are infected or have symptoms.
Health officials have said one of the people under quarantine had household contact with Vinson.
They have emphasized that the nurse didn’t show symptoms during her visit, an important detail because people infected with Ebola aren’t considered contagious until they have symptoms.
Health officials have been trying to identify and alert anyone who had close contact with her, including other passengers on the Dallas-bound flight. They have emphasized that Ohio has no Ebola cases and that the disease is spread through direct contact with bodily fluids, not through the air.
Even as health agencies continued stressing that the risk of contracting Ebola in Ohio is slim, some school and hospital employees were staying home amid concerns that they might have had contact with Vinson.
The Cleveland Clinic and The MetroHealth System said some of their nurses and other employees were on the same flight Dallas-to-Cleveland flight. The employees – including five nurses from the Cleveland Clinic – were believed to have a low risk of exposure but are on paid leave as a precaution while their health is monitored.At
Kent State University, three employees related to Vinson have been asked to remain off campus for three weeks. Vinson didn’t visit campus during her recent trip, the school said. It isn’t identifying the related employees.
WKYC-TV reported that Solon City Schools in suburban Cleveland canceled classes in two buildings Thursday after learning a staff member might have flown on the same Frontier Airlines plane as Vinson, but on a different flight. Several other districts reported employees were staying home after determining Vinson may have been in the proximity of those people or other people with whom they had close contact.
In additional guidance sent late Wednesday to health care providers and local officials, the state recommended a 21-day quarantine for those who’ve had direct physical contact with an infected person without wearing protective equipment. Individuals who’ve been within a three-foot radius of an infected person for a prolonged period should report their temperatures twice a day, once witnessed by a public health official and once reported by phone. Those who had no direct contact but were in the vicinity of an infected person, as indicated by a health official, should self-monitor.
Associated Press writers Ann Sanner, Jennifer Smola and Mitch Stacy in Columbus, Ohio, and John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, and AP News Researcher Barbara Sambriski in New York also contributed to this report.
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