Hartford — Hospitals statewide have been directed by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy to conduct Ebola preparedness drills within the next seven days and preferably within the next 48 hours, and a Unified Command Team of state officials has been formed to coordinate resources and personnel to handle any possible Ebola cases in the state and serve as the single point of contact with the public.

The team will be headed by Dr. Jewel Mullen, the public health commissioner, and would include representatives of the governor’s office, the Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection, the Department of Education, the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, the Department of Administrative Services and the Department of Correction.

Malloy announced the measures during a news conference Thursday at the state Armory amid reports that Yale-New Haven Hospital had placed a patient with possible Ebola symptoms in isolation. The patient, a doctoral student at Yale University who had recently traveled to West Africa for research, went to the hospital with symptoms late Wednesday. Late Thursday afternoon, the state health department announced that results of blood tests conducted at the Massachusetts State Public Health laboratory showed the student did not have the deadly virus. Results of confirmation tests from the Centers for Disease Control are expected as early as today, the health department said.

The patient will remain under a state-imposed isolation order pending the results of the CDC tests.
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