MANHATTAN — The city is now monitoring 357 people for Ebola symptoms, a three-fold increase from last week, according to health department officials.
Most of those being monitored are travelers arriving in the city after spending time in the three West African nations with active Ebola outbreaks.
The new figure — up from 117 last week — also includes Bellevue Hospital staff responsible for treatment of the city's only Ebola patient, Dr. Craig Spencer, as well as FDNY and EMS workers who transported Spencer to the hospital and the lab workers who conducted blood work for the doctor.
"All of these individuals are being monitored out of an abundance of caution, and none are showing any symptoms," said health officials.
Under active monitoring, health officials have to check in with affected individuals daily, rather than just allowing people to monitor their own symptoms.
The number of people being monitored is expected to fluctuate as more people arrive from West Africa.
The number could also increase after Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio announced an effort last week to provide incentives for New York health care workers to travel to West Africa to help stop the virus at its source.
The active monitoring lasts for 21 days, the incubation period of the virus.
Only one of the three people who had close contact with Spencer remains under quarantine, said health officials.
Two of Spencer's friends and his fiancèe Morgan Dixon were placed under quarantine nearly two weeks ago because they had close contact with the doctor.
Spencer, a fellow of international emergency medicine at New York-Presbyterian, contracted the disease while treating Ebola patients in Guinea with the international aid organization Doctors Without Borders.
Only Dixon remains under mandatory isolation at the Hamilton Heights apartment she shares with Spencer.
Both friends, who have not been publicly identified, have been released from quarantine after examination by a doctor and review by Department of Health staff.
Health officials said on Saturday that the first of Spencer's friends was released after a "thorough review with the quarantined individual" on Halloween by a senior DOH official found that their "exposure was not consistent with how Ebola is transmitted."
The two friends will still be subject to twice daily active monitoring for 21 days.
The only way to contract the disease is through contact with bodily fluids from an infected individual while they are displaying symptoms.
Spencer's condition continues to improve, Health and Hospitals Corporation President Dr. Ram Raju said at an unrelated press conference Thursday at Coney Island Hospital.
"He continues to be stable and is making good progress," said Raju. "And hopefully he will be able to....come off the isolation soon."
City officials expect their response to Ebola to cost "many millions" and plan to ask the federal government for help in paying the costs. City officials were unable to provide the amount of taxpayer dollars that went into the Ebola response Thursday.