Five students at different schools were exposed to the Ebola virus patient being treated at a Dallas hospital, Texas Gov. Rick Perry and state health officials said in a news conference Wednesday, addressing issues related to the first U.S. diagnosed Ebola patient.

Perry also revealed that contrary to previous reports, the patient told a nurse at the hospital he had just returned to the states from Liberia. However, the message apparently never got from the nurse to other health workers.

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Health officials initially said the patient didn't say he had been abroad before being released into the community for several days. He was earlier misdiagnosed of a minor viral condition rather than the potentially deadly disease.

Perry said the children who had contact with the first Ebola patient diagnosed in the U.S. had been identified and were being monitored at their homes. "This is all hands on deck," he added.

The five students were among a dozen, or more, people exposed to the deadly virus, according to health officials.

The students didn't show symptoms, but  Perry said additional health workers and personnel would be at the schools attended by the exposed students to monitor the situation. Those schools consist of three elementary schools, a middle school and a high school.

Meanwhile, an extensive patient tracking process had been put in place to deal with the Ebola threat, said Dr. Tom Frieden, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director. Frieden said a seven-person team in Dallas would work with local authorities to identify anybody who had contact with the Ebola patient, then monitor those people for three weeks.

Frieden said the unidentified man with Ebola was a priority for health officials. He expressed confidence that others who flew with the man from Liberia didn't have the disease. They flew with the man several days before he contracted the disease, so the man wasn't contagious at the time, Frieden said.

Ebola in West Africa has killed almost 3,000 people and sickened another 3,400 people since its March outbreak, health officials said.

TagsRick Perry, Dallas, Ebola Virus, Ebola outbreak, Ebola drug, ebola symptoms, CDC, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Tom Frieden