Officials are retracing the steps of a doctor who tested positive for Ebola Thursday, with the doctor in isolation at a New York City hospital and three others under quarantine, city and state officials said.
Dr. Craig Allen Spencer, 33, was placed in isolation at Bellevue Hospital Thursday after reporting a fever and gastrointestinal symptoms. He had been treating Ebola patients in Guinea – one of the West African countries battling an outbreak of the deadly virus – for Doctors Without Borders, officials said. Spencer left Guinea on Oct. 14 and traveled through Brussels, Belgium and arrived at JFK Airport on Oct. 17.
According to NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene Commissioner Dr. Mary Bassett, Spencer had contact with four people – his fiancée, two friends and an Uber driver. His fiancée, identified by a family friend as Morgan Dixon, is under quarantine at Bellevue Hospital while his two friends are quarantined at home, Bassett said. None of the people under quarantine are showing Ebola symptoms. The Uber driver isn’t considered to be at risk for contracting the virus.
Health officials say Spencer took the A, L and 1 subway trains on Wednesday. He also went for a jog and visited The Gutter, a bowling alley in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn. The Gutter was closed Thursday "out of an abundance of caution," Bassett said.
The NYC Health Department will check the bowling alley on Friday, Bassett said.
Craig Spencer/LinkedIn
PHOTO: Dr. Craig Spencer is seen in this undated LinkedIn profile photo.
Spencer's apartment was sealed off after it was cleared. Since he tested positive, a team will decontaminate his apartment in the Harlem section of New York.
Neighbors were saddened to learn about Spencer's diagnosis.
"I really hope the odds are in his favor in regards to his recovery," neighbor John Roston said.
John Minchillo/AP Photo
The Gutter bowling alley remains closed in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn that was visited by Craig Spencer, a Doctors Without Borders physician who tested positive for the Ebola virus, Oct. 23, 2014.
Health officials say the chances of the average New Yorker contracting Ebola, which is spread through direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person, are slim – “close to nil” that the subway rides would pose a risk, Bassett said.
Still, the news rankled some New Yorkers.
"Oh my gosh!" said Charles Kerr, 60, as his friends gathered on a Harlem sidewalk murmured. "This changes the situation. The guy must be coughing, sitting against people. Now you've got to think."
Kerr said he wasn't afraid, but he wants a stricter approach to anyone coming from the Ebola-affected countries.
John Minchillo/AP Photo
Police officers stand outside the home of Craig Spencer, a Doctors Without Borders physician who recently returned to the city after treating Ebola patients in West Africa, Oct. 23, 2014, in New York.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, speaking at Thursday press conference, expressed their confidence in the staff at Bellevue Hospital to treat Spencer.
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