UPDATE: Seven more Spanish taken into urgent Ebola observation

A FURTHER seven people have been admitted for observation to the Madrid hospital where Spain’s first Ebola victim is being treated.

A total of 14 people are now under observation or being treated, according to a hospital spokesperson.

This total includes Teresa Romero Ramos – the first person to contract the virus outside West Africa – and her husband.

The seven new admissions include two hairdressers who had given Romero a beauty treatment before she was diagnosed, and hospital staff who had treated the 44-year-old nurse after she was admitted on September 30.

But Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy insists that it is extremely unlikely that the disease – which has already killed 4,000 people in West Africa – would spread in Spain.

“Our first priority is Teresa Romero – she is the only person that we know has the illness,” Rajoy told reporters on the steps of the hospital.

The government has today set up a special committee – headed by the deputy prime minister – to handle the situation, while Health Minister Ana Mato has been ‘demoted’.