The executive director of the agency that operates the New York area’s major airports said Wednesday no one screened for the Ebola virus has tested positive since the program began this month and, as an extra precautionary measure, he has ordered stricter cleaning protocols to guard against the possible spread of Ebola.

Patrick Foye of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said 389 people have been screened at John F. Kennedy International Airport and 68 at Newark Liberty Airport since screening began Oct. 11. No one had the virus, he said.

The number at Newark includes a passenger suspected to have Ebola who arrived Tuesday night and was taken to Newark’s University Hospital. By Wednesday, health officials determined the man didn’t have any symptoms of the virus, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said at a news conference.

Newark Liberty and JFK are among five airports in the country designated to receive all U.S.-bound passengers from West Africa. Travelers whose trips began in Guinea, Liberia or Sierra Leone are screened for symptoms.

Foye also said he ordered that restrooms in U.S. Customs and Border Protection-controlled areas of the airports where screening is conducted are to be cleaned twice as often to guard against possible infection. He said the same order covers the cleaning of planes that have arrived carrying passengers whose trips originated in West Africa.

Foye said doctors told Port Authority officials the Ebola virus can live on a hard surface for two to three hours and perhaps longer, which prompted the order.

“I was concerned that if there were delays in processing, which frankly are inherent, and a passenger from West Africa gets off an aircraft and uses a CBP-controlled restroom, there could be a period of time, 60 minutes or 90 minutes or longer, where hundreds of other people could use those restrooms,” Foye said.

He said the private companies that have contracts to clean the restrooms and planes have been given guidelines from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on protocols for protecting workers.

Also Wednesday, Christie announced the signing of an executive order to create a joint response team to oversee the state’s handling of the crisis. State health department officials will be tasked with determining if an asymptomatic passenger who has already been evaluated by CDC officials is considered high-risk and needs to be quarantined.

(AP)