After a holiday weekend that included two Ebola scares, Governor Deval Patrick, flanked by Boston’s mayor and state health and public safety officials, on Tuesday sought to reassure the public that residents of Massachusetts are at low risk of contracting the disease.
Patrick emphasized that there have been no confirmed cases in Massachusetts, but said that the state was prepared to respond in case the deadly disease does arrive here.
“We’re doing everything we can. According to the Centers for Disease Control, we still remain at low risk of Ebola, but we’re remaining vigilant,” he said at a news conference at Logan Airport.
Mayor Martin J. Walsh of Boston echoed the governor’s comments, repeatedly stressing that there is no reason for the public to stay off the MBTA and no reason to avoid the Head of the Charles Regatta, one of the nation’s most famous rowing competitions, on the Charles River this weekend.
“There have been no cases, no toxic cases, on the MBTA,” Walsh said. “Simply going on the train, you are not going to catch Ebola.’’
The news conference, coming amid heightened concerns nationally and an increase in cases overseas, amounted to a full-bore effort to assuage and educate the public about the virus.
Public health officials sought to quell fears by repeatedly mentioning that contracting Ebola requires direct contact with bodily fluids, and that the virus cannot be spread through the air or through water.
“Even though this outbreak is unprecedented, Ebola has been around for many, many years and decades,” said Huy Nguyen, the interim executive director of the Boston Public Health Commission. “We as a public health system know how to contain the Ebola virus disease.”
Cheryl Bartlett, the commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, assured the public that officials were in constant contact with medical facilities. She said 100 percent of hospitals and medical facilities have been asking travel history questions, and many have been asked to complete exercises to test preparedness.
While Bartlett was speaking, Patrick walked up and stood directly next to her.
“Let me try to hammer this point again,’’ Patrick said. “If I had Ebola, the commissioner standing right here would be at minimal risk of catching it, if any. If any. This is hard to catch. She would have to touch my blood or other bodily fluids and have . . . if I understand it correctly, have an open cut or something on her own hand.’’
Bartlett agreed with the governor and said that the “best barrier’’ to infection is intact skin.
The Head of the Charles, which runs from Saturday to Sunday, routinely draws tens of thousands of people onto the banks of the river in Boston and Cambridge. Frederick V. Schoch, the executive director of the Regatta, said he has not heard any Ebola-related concerns from participants or those who plan to attend.
Joe Pesaturo, spokesman for the MBTA, said the agency’s customer services department likewise has not received any Ebola-related calls or e-mails from worried MBTA customers.
But there have been moments of alarm at Logan Airport and elsewhere in the region in recent days.
On Sunday, a man who had traveled to Liberia showed up at a Braintree clinic with flu-like symptoms, triggering a full response, with health workers outfitted in infectious disease control suits. The man was escorted by police to a Boston hospital in an ambulance, while his car was plastered with orange biohazard signs to keep people away.
A Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center spokeswoman said Monday the hospital had “determined with certainty” that the man treated in Braintree did not have Ebola.
And at Logan Airport, five passengers experiencing flu-like symptoms aboard a flight from Dubai were escorted off a plane Monday afternoon amid concerns that they were infected with the Ebola virus.
Officials escorted the five ailing passengers to two area hospitals to evaluate their conditions, Matthew Brelis, spokesman for the Massachusetts Port Authority, which operates the airport, said Monday.
On Monday night, the Boston Public Health Commission issued a statement saying that the patients who arrived on Emirates Flight 237 “do not meet the criteria for any infections of public health concern, including Ebola” or several other diseases.
Martin Finucane of the Globe staff contributed to this report. Nicole Dungca can be reached at nicole.dungca@globe.com.