The Texas Department of State Health Services said that on Friday the last of the people who had contact with Ebola patients in Dallas will be cleared of the daily monitoring period.

The Associated Press reported that 177 people will be given an official all-clear at midnight.

"It's a time to reflect on the sacrifices of our hometown health care heroes and the city, county, and school district employees that worked so hard, along with our state and federal partners, to keep us safe during the Ebola crisis," Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said in a statement.

About 50 people who returned to the city after traveling to West Africa will continue to be monitored.

President Barack Obama called state and local officials Friday afternoon and thanked them for their role and cooperation in resolving the matter. And as KERA noted, former President George Bush met with nurse Amber Vinson, who had been infected with the deadly virus and was recently discharged from a hospital in Georgia.

Vinson and another nurse, Nina Pham, became infected with Ebola after treating patient Thomas Eric Duncan at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital. Duncan, a Liberian citizen, contracted the debilitating disease abroad and died in the hospital a month ago.

The Ebola virus has killed around 5,000 people, mostly in the West African countries of Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.