Rick Perry calls for Ebola checkpoints at border

Texas Governor Rick Perry is calling for "fully staffed quarantine stations anywhere people enter the country," CNN reports.

Perry used executive action Monday to create the Texas Task Force on Infectious Disease Preparedness and Response to study and improve Texas' readiness to deal with such diseases as Ebola.

Texas became the first state to face Ebola when Thomas Duncan was diagnosed with the virus after arriving in Dallas from Liberia. Duncan is in hospital isolation under critical condition while his family remains quarantined.

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Perry said "there's only so much that a state can do," and called on Washington to "take immediate steps to minimize" the risks of Ebola. The American public, however, has little confidence in the federal government's competency in dealing with the disease. A recent Associated Press poll found that more than half of respondents "lack confidence in the government's ability to protect them."