US President Barack Obama has said his administration would adopt a "more aggressive" stance to tackle the Ebola outbreak in the aftermath of another American health worker testing positive for the disease.
Obama cancelled his trip to New York after media reports emerged that the second healthcare worker had contracted the virus after treating an Ebola patient. The President held a meeting with his top health care officials at the White House.
Obama said in the meeting the participants discussed "monitoring, supervising, overseeing in a much more aggressive way exactly what's taking place in Dallas to ensure the lessons learned are transmitted to hospitals and clinics all across the country."
The meeting was attended by Vice President Joe Biden, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell and Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, among others.
Noting that his administration is "taking this very seriously at the highest levels of government", Obama announced that the Centers for Disease Control and Protection would be deploying "SWAT teams" the next time someone was diagnosed with Ebola in the US.
"We want a rapid response team, a SWAT team essentially, from the CDC to be on the ground as quickly as possible -- hopefully within 24 hours -- so that they are taking the local hospital step by step through exactly what needs to be done," he said.
Obama said the US is reviewing every step of what's happened since the first patient was initially brought into the hospital in Dallas so that they understand exactly where the problems may have occurred.
The President also sought to encase the growing anxiety and fear in the US in the wake of another heatlh worker contracting the disease.
"If we do these protocols properly, if we follow the steps, if we get the information out, then the likelihood of widespread Ebola outbreaks in this country are very, very low," he said.
The White House later said the meeting detailed the new steps that have been taken, including the creation of CDC's Ebola Response Teams, the surging of personnel and resources to Dallas, and an emphasis on increasing outreach and education to US healthcare workers.
"The President concluded the meeting by underscoring that the federal domestic response must move quickly and that contact tracing and monitoring must be undertaken more aggressively while we continue to tackle the virus at its source in West Africa," the White House said.
