Military officials said Friday that the mission to help contain the Ebola virus in West Africa will not require the mobilization of several hundred reservists who had been on tap to deploy.

About 350 mobilization orders were canceled because the number of new Ebola patients in Liberia is declining and the size of the U.S. force in West Africa is drawing down.

"We are confident we can meet the continuing needs of this mission without activating these reservists," Rear Adm. John Kirby said Friday.

The 350 reservists included 280 from Minnesota, 40 from Iowa, 16 from Texas and 14 from Ohio, Kirby said.

Today's troop level for the mission known as Operation United Assistance is about 2,300, down from a peak of about 3,000 in December.

In Liberia, where the U.S. mission has focused, only eight new cases of Ebola were reported last week, down from a peak of more than 300 a week last summer, the World Health Organization announced Friday.

About Andrew Tilghman

Andrew Tilghman is the executive editor for Military Times. He is a former Military Times Pentagon reporter and served as a Middle East correspondent for the Stars and Stripes. Before covering the military, he worked as a reporter for the Houston Chronicle in Texas, the Albany Times Union in New York and The Associated Press in Milwaukee.

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