New York City officials on Friday urged people not to panic one day after a medical doctor was tested positive for Ebola virus, the first confirmed case in the Big Apple.

Dr. Craig Spencer, who worked in Guinea with Doctors Without Borders treating Ebola patients, returned to New York City a week ago and developed a fever and diarrhea on Thursday morning. He is isolated and being treated at Bellevue Hospital, a designated center for treating Ebola in Manhattan of the city.

Officials said Spencer, 33, rode the subway, took a cab, went bowling, visited a coffee stand at a Manhattan park and ate at a restaurant before falling ill, which raised public fear of the further spread of the deadly disease which has killed nearly 5,000 people in the world.

The authorities tried hard to assure an anxious public that the likelihood of Spencer disseminating the virus is very low.

"New Yorkers who have not been exposed to an infected person's bodily fluids are simply not at risk," said New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio at a news conference Friday afternoon, while working to explain that Ebola is transmitted only through direct contact with the blood or other bodily fluids of another individual. He also stressed that there is no cause for New Yorkers to change their daily routine in any way.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority also ran a statement claiming that: "There is no indication the patient was contagious when he rode the subway ... There is no indication he emitted any bodily fluids on the subway. There were no reports of bodily fluids on any of the subway lines he rode."

While reassuring the general public the city is fully prepared to handle Ebola, Mayor De Blasio said: "We have the finest public health system, not only in this country, but anywhere in the world. "

According to NYC Health Commissioner Mary Bassett, Spencer was in stable condition, and his fiancee and two other friends had been quarantined but showed no symptoms.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has sent an Ebola response team to New York and had confirmed Spencer' s initial test results as positive for Ebola. Endite

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