In New York City, training has been accelerated for emergency workers and city employees who would be on the front lines in dealing with Ebola, officials say.
Officials announced plans to increase safety protocols while improving ways of educating the public on how the virus disease can spread.
On Tuesday, health care workers, doctors, nurses, and even security guards and janitors attended a mass meeting at a convention center in Manhattan for a training session to ready them for the possibility of the Ebola virus being found in the city.
The latest updated protocols issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta were explained and discussed among the more than 5,000 attendees.
New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo addressed the session.
"Keep the anxiety down, keep the fear down, because it's unnecessary," Cuomo told the workers. "It's not right and it only makes the situation more complex for all of us to deal with."
Efforts are underway to have all hospitals in the state ready and prepared to treat Ebola patients if it becomes necessary, he said.
Bellevue Hospital, New York City's biggest public hospital, has been chosen as the primary facility to receive and care for possible Ebola patients in isolation rooms, officials said.
"What's going to kill this disease is knowledge, is training, is preparation," Cuomo said.
During the training event streamed live online, experts from the CDC offered live training exercises intended to demonstrate safe ways to care for Ebola patients.
Dr. Bryan Christensen of the CDC's domestic infection control team led a demonstration of how to don personal protective equipment, now part of the CDC protocols, which consists of gloves, foot covers and a complete coverage suit.
Respirators for respiratory protection was also demonstrated and explained.
The process of suiting up takes between 15 and 20 minutes, CDC experts explained, emphasizing that the process cannot be rushed.
"When we use equipment we are not used to, it makes it difficult," said the CDC's Dr. Arjun Srinivasan. "The way we address this is practice, practice, practice."
Other preparations for dealing with possible Ebola cases have been put in place, city officials explained.
Dispatchers in the 911 system have been trained to query callers describing Ebola-like systems about their travel histories, they said.
Enhanced screening measures are in place at Kennedy International Airport for passengers arriving from Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, the three countries as the center of the current African outbreak.
