Seven in voluntary quarantine, one business closed after Ebola patient Amber Vinson's Akron visit, Seven area residents are in voluntary quarantine and one Summit County business voluntarily closed because they had been visited by Dallas nurse and Ebola patient Amber Joy Vinson.
Five people quarantined reside in Summit County and two are in Cuyahoga County, officials said. They refused to name anyone on voluntary quarantine. The seven includes three of Vinson's relatives employed at Kent State University.
None have any symptoms, said Dr. Margo Erme, the Summit County Public Health medical director. Vinson's mother is also additionally on voluntary quarantine in Dallas, Erme said.
Erme also refused to name the business that Vinson attended while here.
"We don't want the public to know because we don't have enough information to know if there are any problems," Erme said. "Once we name the business, then it doesn't matter if we could come back three days later and say there was nothing to worry about. We don't want the business to be blackballed."
Summit County Public Health Commissioner Gene Nixon said health officials in Texas shared notes from their interviews with Vinson. Nixon said local health officials then conducted dozens of interviews and found Vinson mostly stayed at her stepfather's home on Stonegate Trail in Tallmadge.
Nixon said Vinson met with five friends and went to a retail store while she was home. Erme said Vinson purposefully limited her interactions with others because she had cared for Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan in Texas."She's a very conscientious young lady," Nixon said. "She was aware of what she'd been through and was careful around family and anyone she came into contact with."
Erme said the seven people on voluntary quarantine had the most significant contact with Vinson during her say in Summit County between Oct. 10-13.
Erme said officials have interviewed several others who came into contact with Vinson during her stay but none of them needed to take any special precautions based on the Center for Disease Control guidelines as of Wednesday. The CDC released new guidelines on Thursday, so they are re-interviewing those who came into contact with Vinson.
"Now we're looking into any additional contacts that meet the new guidelines," Erme said.
Erme said county officials are compiling a list of everyone Vinson came into contact with but did not have the exact number. She said the Center for Disease Control has one worker already in Summit County and that more are on the way here.
She said they are in regular contact with all five who are quarantined in Summit County. Erme also said people who came into contact with any of the seven area residents are not necessarily at risk.
"If you have not received a phone call from Summit County Public Health or the Ohio Department of Health, you are not at risk," Erme said.
