Dallas County officials are considering asking Gov. Rick Perry (R) to declare a state of emergency for an area that has reported three cases of Ebola.



The county commissioners will meet Thursday afternoon to weigh the option, the Dallas Morning News reported late Wednesday.



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A state of emergency would activate "appropriate recovery and rehabilitation aspects of all applicable local or interjurisdictional emergency management plans," according to state law.It would also authorize emergency aid and assistance. Governors typically declare a state of emergency after a natural disaster.Perry said Wednesday that he is in daily contact with state health leaders as regularly communicating with White House officials.“This is the first time that our nation has had to deal with a threat such as this," Perry said in a statement Wednesday. "Every relevant agency at the local, state and national levels is working to support these individuals."Dallas has reported two cases of Ebola since Saturday. Both patients are healthcare workers who had helped treat Thomas Eric Duncan, the Liberian man who died from the disease last week.Hospital staffers were not expected to be at risk of contracting the virus and were not being actively monitored by state or federal health officials. One of the nurses also took a flight into a Dallas airport just hours before she was diagnosed.Liberia and Sierra, which have recorded thousands of cases of Ebola, have both declared a state of emergency since this summer.