Ebola monitoring applied to more than 600 people in New Jersey

New Jersey has monitored more than 600 people in their homes for possible exposure to Ebola, state health officials say.

According to data provided to the Office of Legislative Services by the New Jersey Department of Health and posted by NJ.com, 1,408 passengers arriving in the state from Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia were screened for possible exposure to Ebola.

The screening was done at a cost of $2.6 million.

639 were found to be "low risk" and had no immediate exposure to the disease. Three were found to have "some risk." All 642 people were allowed to return home and were monitored by dozens of health departments from around state. They were not quarantined and were allowed to conduct their lives as normal.

Eighty-one people are still being monitored.

Last August, the U.N. health agency declared the epidemic of the lethal virus to be a global emergency after the deaths of nearly 1,000 people, mostly in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.

At the peak last year, hundreds of new cases were being reported every week. In an update this week, the World Health Organization reported there were 30 confirmed cases last week in Guinea and Sierra Leone; the last case in Liberia died on March 27.

Dr. Bruce Aylward, who is leading WHO's Ebola response, said the decline appeared to be real, rather than just "a pothole on the bumpy road to get to zero cases."

To date, Ebola is estimated to have infected more than 25,500 people and killed 10,587, mostly in West Africa.11 cases were treated in the United State with 2 resulting in death.

The Associated Press contributed to this report