Some of the dozens of people who are being watched for possible exposure to Ebola in the United States are expected to be cleared on Sunday and Monday, potentially easing concerns about the spread of the disease after two nurses were infected.
A Dallas lab worker who spent much of a Caribbean holiday cruise in isolation tested negative for the deadly virus and left the Carnival Magic liner with other passengers after it docked at Galveston, Texas, early on Sunday morning.
The precautions taken for the cruise passenger reflected widespread anxiety over Ebola in the United States, including calls from some lawmakers for a travel ban on West Africa.
The worst outbreak on record of the virus, which is spread by contact with bodily fluids of sick people, has killed more than 4,500 people, mostly in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.
Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf urged on Sunday stronger international action to bring the epidemic under control, saying the disease was unleashing an economic catastrophe that will leave a "lost generation" of young West Africans..
In the United States, the first person to be diagnosed with the disease was Thomas Eric Duncan, a Liberian who fell ill while visiting Dallas last month. He died on October 8, and two nurses who treated him were infected. This triggered a lengthy watch list of people who had had possible contact with them.
At midnight, some 48 people who might have been in contact with Duncan will no longer require monitoring for signs of the virus, health officials say.
On Monday, more were expected to end 21 days of monitoring -- the incubation period for the virus.
They would include Duncan's fiancee, Louise Troh, her 13-year-old son and two other people who have been in mandatory quarantine at an undisclosed location in Dallas.
"They will be free to go ... It will expire for them at midnight tonight and that's going to be a good thing for those families who've been through so much and we're very happy about that," Clay Jenkins, Dallas County's top official, said in an interview on ABC's "This Week."
There are still 75 health workers in Dallas who have isolated themselves and are being monitored.
