120 people on Ebola watch list in US' Dallas city

About 120 people are being monitored for signs of Ebola in the US city of Dallas in Texas, the second most populous US state after California.

According to health authorities, about 120 people are still being monitored for signs of Ebola in Dallas -- the epicentre of the Ebola outbreak in the US -- as dozens of others came out of the three-week observation period Monday, Xinhua reported.

Dallas officials declared 43 people who may have had contact with the first diagnosed Ebola patient on US soil -- Thomas Eric Duncan -- free of the deadly virus at a press conference held Monday morning.

Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings called the day a "milestone day", implying that the first group of people possibly exposed to Ebola in the country are cleared of the risk now. "We are breathing a little easier," Rawlings said, "but we are still holding our breath a fair amount until Nov 7".

The mayor said 120 people on the watch list, 75 of them hospital staffers involved in treating Duncan, will come out of the quarantine period Nov 7. The incubation period of Ebola is 21 days at most, and the virus is communicable only after symptoms are shown.

The remaining on the list include those who had contact with two nurses confirmed to be the only two transmission cases in the country till now.

The two victims, Nina Pham and Amber Joy Vinson, contracted the virus while caring for Duncan. They were moved out of Dallas last week to special isolation units in Bethesda, Maryland and Atlanta, respectively. Both of them are reportedly in fair condition.