Conflicting stories on the Texas ebola cleanup

Delay in Dallas Ebola Cleanup as Workers Balk at Task

New York Times

In the latest indication, state and local authorities confirmed Thursday that a week after a Liberian man fell ill with Ebola in Dallas, and four days after he was placed in isolation at a hospital here, the apartment where he was staying with four other people had not been sanitized and the sheets and dirty towels he used while sick remained in the home. County officials visited the apartment without protection Wednesday night.  

The officials said it had been difficult to find a contractor willing to enter the apartment to clean it and remove bedding and clothes, which they said had been bagged in plastic. They said they now had hired a firm that would do the work soon. The Texas health commissioner, Dr. David Lakey, told reporters during an afternoon news conference that officials had encountered “a little bit of hesitancy” in seeking a firm to clean the apartment.

Cleanup crew turned away over permit issue at Dallas apartment where Ebola patient stayed: report

Washington Times

The apartment where the Texas Ebola patient stayed has still not been sanitized because the company hired to do it does not have the right permits to transport hazardous waste on state highways, CNN reported.

Brad Smith of the Cleaning Guys, the company hired to sanitize the unit where Thomas Eric Duncan stayed, said authorities turned his crew away late Thursday and told them to come back with permits from the Department of Transportation.

Crews Cleaning Dallas Ebola Patient’s Apartment

CBS DFW

Hazmat crews in Dallas spent Thursday night clearing out the apartment unit where Ebola patient Thomas Duncan was staying before being admitted into Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital for treatment. Duncan is the first Ebola diagnosis in the United States.

The crew tasked with working at the Dallas apartment unit is specialized in communicable disease cleanup and containment.