Texas health officials say that 100 people are now being monitored for Ebola symptoms, according to multiple reports.
The Texas Department of State Health Services said it was casting a “wide net” to ensure that the virus does not spread from Thomas Eric Duncan, the confirmed Ebola patient in a Dallas hospital.
The group under medical surveillance includes “people who have had even brief encounters with the patient or the patient’s home,” spokeswoman Carrie Wilson said in a statement Thursday morning.
Dallas County Health and Human Services spokeswoman Erikka Neroes previously told CNN that her agency was monitoring 80 people. None have shown symptoms or been quarantined, she added.
That figure was a significant increase from the one quoted on Wednesday, when health officials said the patient’s contacts totaled 18.
The jump in potential cases signals the sensitivity of the situation in Dallas as disease detectives try to make sure the virus is contained.
Health officials are now monitoring not just Duncan’s contacts, but the people they had contact with. It is unclear how many in that group are children.
Details are slowly leaking out about Duncan and his reasons for traveling to the United States.
A resident of Liberia, the delivery driver, who is in his mid-40s, was reportedly visiting his girlfriend and relatives in Dallas.
The woman has five children who came into contact with Duncan and who are now being kept at home.
— This post was updated at 11:43 a.m.