Schools In Texas, Ohio Close Out of Ebola Caution

Several schools in Texas and Ohio closed on Thursday amid fears of possible Ebola exposure from a Dallas nurse who took a commercial air flight between Cleveland and Dallas on Monday evening.

The nurse, 26-year-old Amber Vinson, had traveled on a commercial Frontier Airlines flight Monday evening from Cleveland to Dallas after visiting Ohio to plan her wedding. The nurse had been treating Thomas Eric Duncan, a Liberian national who died of the sickness at the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital last week.

Ebola is only contagious when symptoms are present, and Vinson reportedly had a slight fever while on the flight.

While Vinson has been transferred to the Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia for treatment, several schools in Texas and Cleveland have closed or sent students home for quarantine out of extended precaution for the Ebola virus.

The Solon County School District in Ohio closed two of its schools after learning a middle school teacher had traveled on the same plane as Vinson, although not the same flight. The plane had landed in Dallas on Monday evening at around 8 p.m. and did not depart again until the next day.

Three schools in central Texas were also closed Thursday after school officials learned that students had been on the same flight as Vinson.

Dallas County officials are seeking to request an emergency declaration for the state in response to the Ebola virus spread. According to state law, a state of emergency "activates the appropriate recovery and rehabilitation aspects of all applicable local or interjurisdictional emergency management plans and authorizes the furnishing of aid and assistance under the declaration."

The law adds that "the county judge or mayor of a municipality may control ingress to and egress from a disaster area under the jurisdiction and authority of the county judge or mayor and control the movement of persons and the occupancy of premises in that area."