President Barack Obama has asked Ron Klain, a former chief of staff to Vice-President Joe Biden, to coordinate the administration's response to Ebola.

Obama signaled Thursday he wasn't opposed to what new reports have been calling an Ebola "czar." The Klain appointment came just hours later.

"It may make sense for us to have one person, in part just so that after this initial surge of activity we can have a more regular process just to make sure that we're crossing all the T's and dotting all the I's going forward," Obama told reporters Thursday.

Klain, a lawyer and Democratic party insider, also was chief of staff to former Vice-President Al Gore and was deeply involved in the recount battle during the 2000 presidential election.

A White House blog post quoted the president as saying the “dangers of a serious outbreak are extraordinarily low (but) we are taking this very seriously at the highest levels of government.”

Klain’s task was described as bringing his “talent and managerial skill” to bear so that resources and expertise are available to “rapidly, cohesively, and effectively respond to Ebola at home and abroad.”

Klain will report to Homeland Security Adviser Lisa Monaco and National Security Adviser Susan Rice.

Obama also indicated that he hadn't completely ruled out a stricter travel ban on individuals coming from the Ebola-stricken regions in West Africa, but said he didn't think it would help protect Americans.

The president’s decision comes as the World Health Organization says the toll in the Ebola epidemic has passed 9,200 cases.

In the three West African countries where transmission remains intense -- Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone -- the agency has recorded 9,191 suspected, probably, and confirmed cases, including 4,546 deaths since the outbreak started last December.

Those numbers are probably significantly low, owing to under-reporting and difficulties in case ascertainment in the three nations, where -- even before the current crisis -- public health and medical infrastructure was almost nonexistent.

Four other countries -- the U.S., Spain, Nigeria, and Senegal -- have reported a total of 23 cases including three in the U.S., one each in Spain and Senegal, and 20 in Nigeria. When those numbers are added in, the world toll stands at 9,216 cases and 4,555 deaths.

The WHO declared the outbreak in Senegal officially over after 42 days -- twice the 21-day Ebola incubation period -- had passed since the last negative sample from the country’s single case.

In Nigeria, all 891 contacts of confirmed cases have now passed the 21-day incubation period, and it has been 38 days since the last negative sample from a surviving patient.

Meanwhile, Spain is monitoring 72 contacts -- including 13 thought to be at high risk -- of nursing assistant María Teresa Romero Ramos, 44, who contracted the virus while caring for Spanish priest Manuel García Viejo, who later died of Ebola he contracted in West Africa.

In the U.S., where two nurses -- Nina Pham and Amber Vinson -- are under care after treating Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan, health officials are monitoring about 50 people who might have come in contact with Duncan while he was ill.

As well, they are tracking 48 people who had contact with him before his diagnosis.

Airborne Ebola?

Meanwhile, most Americans know that people with Ebola are contagious when they are showing symptoms of the disease, a new poll shows, and most know that bodily fluids are risky.

But a substantial proportion believe the virus can be spread by coughing or sneezing, according to the poll, conducted by the Harvard School of Public Health and the Pennsylvania polling company SSRS.

The poll was conducted Oct. 8 through 12 -- the period in which Thomas Eric Duncan died of the disease in Dallas and one of his caregivers tested positive.

The results showed that 81% of the 1,004 respondents thought Ebola is likely to spread from a person with symptoms to others, and 95% agreed that a person is likely to get Ebola if they come into contact with bodily fluids of a symptomatic person.

But 85% said a person sneezed or coughed on by a symptomatic person is likely to get the disease -- something that health officials say is highly unlikely.

Both the World Health Organization and the CDC have said there's no evidence for flu-like airborne spread, and decades of experience with the virus in outbreaks in Africa suggest only the direct route should be worrisome.

Although there are only two cases of homegrown infection -- both nosocomial -- 52% worry there will be a large U.S. outbreak of Ebola within a year, up from the 39% who had that fear in a similar poll in August, the poll showed.

And 38% now worry they or someone in their immediate family may get catch Ebola over the next year, up from the 26% in the August poll.

The poll suggested that most people -- some 80% -- think immediate medical care would probably save a person in their community who got Ebola.

In a statement, the researchers who commissioned the poll said the margin of error for total respondents is plus or minus 3.6 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.

Dallas Hospital on Defensive

Elsewhere, Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, the institution that treated Duncan, is denying allegations -- most recently by one of its nurses -- that there were serious defects early in the man's care.

Nurse Briana Aguirre, 30, told the New York Times that it took at least 3 hours to get Duncan into isolation when he arrived with severe symptoms Sept. 28.

"I know he spent a multitude of hours in an area where anyone could be walking up and down the hall," Aguirre told the newspaper.

"He was in a room with a closed door, but the same staff that was caring for him were caring for other people at that time, and it stayed that way anywhere from 3 to 5 hours."

In a statement, Texas Health Presbyterian said that Duncan arrived by ambulance and "was moved directly to a private room and placed in isolation."

The hospital added that staff wore "appropriate personal protective equipment" as recommended by the CDC at the time.

The hospital has also been criticized, among other things, for using a pneumatic tube delivery system to move specimens.

In the statement, the hospital said that was true during Duncan's initial visit Sept. 25 (when he was eventually sent home with antibiotics) but all specimens were in closed specimen bags and did not leak or spill.

During the second visit, the statement said, the tube system was used once and later specimens were carefully packages and hand-carried to the lab utilizing the buddy system.

Nurses who care for Duncan wore protective equipment that was consistent with CDC guidelines, the statement said, and they changed that gear as CDC guidance changed.

The hospital has been under attack for possible breaches of infection control protocols by the nation’s largest nurses’ union, National Nurses United, which has also said many of its members feel unprepared for a possible Ebola patient.

The American Nurses Association of Silver Springs, Md., urged the CDC to issue “clear, concrete guidelines to ensure patient [and] health professional safety in light of Ebola transmissions.”

Association president Pamela Cipriano, RN, PhD, said in a statement the CDC is making steps in the right direction but still hasn’t addressed “to our satisfaction concerns we have heard from our members.”

“Clinical health settings, such as hospitals, are unpredictable environments,” Cipriano said. “Instead of variability, we need clear-cut standards and guidelines in place that nurses and healthcare team members can follow consistently.”

Cipriano said the association supports Aguirre’s decision to go public and said nurses should “speak up if they believe there is inadequate planning, education, or treatment related to providing care of these or any patients.”

But not all nurses feel they are unprepared, according to Deena Brecher, RN, who is president of the Emergency Nurses Association, based in Des Plaines, Ill.

Brecher told MedPage Today that when she asked members whether they thought they had been given proper training to deal with Ebola patients, the answer was: “A resounding Yes, virtually unanimous.”

Most nurses are confident that they can handle screening and triage, Brecher said, but they are less sure where to transfer Ebola patients from the emergency room and how to prevent transmission while they were there.

Brecher noted that nurses are trained for a standard set of isolation procedures, but those for Ebola need much more attention to detail, especially when it comes to putting on and taking off protective equipment.

That, she said, takes practice before an Ebola patient appears. “Let’s focus on getting training to the people who need it,” Brecher said.

Worker Quarantined on Cruise Ship

And a worker who might have been involved in handled blood samples from Duncan is reportedly on a cruise ship in the Caribbean. The worker, who has not been identified, was regarded as being at low risk and left on the cruise before the two recent infections.

The employee and a traveling partner, who were not identified by name, agreed to remain isolated in a cabin aboard the vessel, according to the State Department.

"The employee did not have direct contact with the since deceased Ebola patient, but may have had contact with clinical specimens collected from him," the department said in a statement.

The worker has been self-monitoring, including daily temperature checks, since Oct. 6, and has not had a fever or any symptoms of illness, the statement said, adding it has been 19 days since the passenger may have processed fluid samples from Duncan.

The department is working with the cruise line to repatriate the worker and the traveling companion.

Additional reporting contributed by Molly Walker.

UPDATE: This article, originally published Oct. 17, 2014, at 1:12 p.m., was updated with new material (Oct. 17, 2014, at 6:15 p.m.).