国际英语新闻:Obama appoints Ebola response coordinator, hospital worker isolated on ship

WASHINGTON, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Barack Obama appointed an Ebola response coordinator on Friday, as the government said a Texas hospital worker who handled specimens from an Ebola patient has been isolated on a cruise ship in the Caribbean.

The Ebola response coordinator, Ron Klain, who is best known for serving as chief of staff to both Vice President Joe Biden and former vice president Al Gore, will report directly to Obama's Homeland Security Advisor Lisa Monaco and National Security Advisor Susan Rice, White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters.

"I know that there are some Republicans and even some pundits who are describing him as a czar," Earnest said. "We describe him as the Ebola response coordinator."

Earnest said the appointment of Klain indicates the administration's "tenacious approach to an evolving situation."

"The president recognized that the response would benefit from having someone who could devote 100 percent of their time to this specific task," he said. "And somebody like Mr. Klain, who has a strong management track record both inside government and in the private sector, is the right person for the job."

Klain left the White House in 2011. He is now the president of Case Holdings and serves as the general counsel for Revolution LLC, an investment organization.

The U.S. government's Ebola response has drawn criticism after Thomas Eric Duncan, a Liberian, and two nurses at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital who provided care for him, were diagnosed with the deadly disease.

Meanwhile, the Department of State said that an employee of the Texas hospital who may have had contact with specimens from Duncan departed the country via a commercial cruise ship on Oct. 12.

Noting the worker "did not have direct contact with" Duncan, the department said when the worker left the country only self- monitoring was required.

The department said it has been 19 days since the health worker, a female, may have processed the fluid samples of deceased Duncan, only two days shy of the 21-day incubation period for Ebola.

"The cruise ship's medical doctor has monitored and confirmed ( the worker) was in good health," the statement said. "Following this examination, the hospital employee and traveling partner have voluntarily remained isolated in a cabin."

The department said it's working with the cruise line to safely bring them back to the United States out of an abundance of caution.

The Belize government said Thursday it turned down a request by the U.S. government for assistance in evacuating the passenger through the international airport in Belize City.

Also on Friday, an official at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) said 26-year-old Nina Pham, the first nurse who contracted the virus from Duncan, was "is quite stable now and resting comfortably."

"She was in fair condition, which implies that she does still have some symptoms," Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the NIH, told a press conference. "She is in good spirits. She's a highly intelligent, aware person who knows exactly what's going on."

Pham was transferred Thursday night to the NIH near Washington DC to "receive state-of-the-art care" at the request of Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, the NIH said earlier.

Pham's colleague, 29-year-old Amber Joy Vinson, who tested positive for Ebola Wednesday, has been transported to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, where two Ebola patients brought back from West Africa have been successfully treated.