The first nurse infected with Ebola after treating a Liberian man in Dallas is being flown to the National Institutes of Health in Maryland, said federal health officials during a congressional hearing on Capitol Hill on Thursday.

Dr. Anthony Fauci from the National Institutes of Health said they have two beds available in its high level care and containment facility where the nurse is being transferred. While he hasn't examined the patient yet his understanding is that she is doing reasonably well and is stable.

The nurse Nina Pham was involved in providing care to Thomas Duncan who died of Ebola last week. The second nurse Amber Joy Vinson was transferred to biohazard infectious disease center at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta on Wednesday, where previous patients were successfully treated for Ebola.

Federal health officials still say they don't know how the two Dallas nurses caught Ebola from the patient. Concerns are also mounting how a hospital nurse who treated the patient was cleared to fly on a commercial airlines by the CDC the day before she was diagnosed with Ebola.

For the second day in a row, President Barack Obama has canceled an out-of-town trip to stay in Washington and monitor the Ebola response. In a press conference on Wednesday he said he had directed his administration to respond in a "much more aggressive way."

The Republian-led House held a committee hearing on Thursday on Capitol Hill over concerns that U.S. hospitals were not ready and healthcare workers weren't properly trained or equipped. It is anticipated lawmakers will ask about travel restrictions from the three African countries with Ebola outbreaks.

"Despite these latest incidents, we remain confident that our public health and health care systems can prevent an Ebola outbreak here," Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in prepared testimony for the hearing on Capitol Hill.

Passengers arriving at U.S. airports in Chicago, Atlanta, suburban Washington and Newark, New Jersey today from Guinea, Liberia and Sierrra Leone will have their temperatures taken by the U.S. Customs and health officials on Thursday. The screenings, using no-touch thermometers, started last Saturday at New York's Kennedy International Airport.

A top official with the U.N. health agency says the death toll from the Ebola crisis will rise to more than 4,500 lives this week from among 9,000 people infected by the deadly disease, reported the Associated Press.