Philadelphia City Council addresses Ebola readiness

CENTER CITY (WPVI) -- Officials in Philadelphia will meet Thursday about the Ebola virus to make sure the city is prepared if there is an outbreak here.

It's a joint hearing by the City Council committees on public health and public safety.

They want to know who is doing what to prepare for the possibility of an Ebola case surfacing here.

Councilman Curtis Jones, head of the Public Health Committee, says officials are also trying to tamp down fear by getting to the facts.

The two nurses who contracted Ebola in Dallas were infected 1300 miles away from Philadelphia, but fear of Ebola has spread here and across the country.

Nonetheless, cities like Philadelphia have to be prepared to handle an Ebola case.

The city has one of the largest populations of immigrants from Liberia, the country hardest hit by the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

The council committees will hear from the city health commissioner, the director of emergency management, the airport CEO, and representatives of several hospitals and health systems.

It is a fact-finding effort, but also a chance for the various agencies to springboard off each other with ideas and information.

City Council has a lot of questions about prevention and treatment.

And even if the recommended safeguards are already in place, are they adequate?

The hearing gets underway at 1:00 p.m. Thursday.