Surfaces?
This guy is reported to have had zero physical contact with the carrier...and if he indeed contracts it...
It means only one thing - airborne!!!
They keep dancing around this because they do not want to set off a panic...or because they do but at a more opportune time...like when dozens or hundreds start dropping like flies...
Surfaces are absolutely a hazard. The victims are literally pumping out hot viral material from every part of their body during the latter stages of the disease. If they get perspiration on a door knob, if their vomit is not thoroughly removed, etc. and these surfaces are 1) touched by someone who then 2) touches their own eyes, nose or mouth...that's all it takes.
Now, that said, the viral material cannot stay viable on a surface forever. I am guessing that it will cease to be dangerous after several hours. So, one of the people entering the apartment (not to mention those who were prevented from leaving)
could have contracted the disease under the right circumstances without direct contact with the victim.
Fortunately the sheriff's deputy tested negative.
And...I am also guessing that the virus is probably not viable in a sewer system (too much water and not enough appropriate cellular material). But that's just a guess.
I think that a more serious danger for the USA will be from our southern border. If the disease gets started up in any of the third world cesspools that lie to our south we can expect a flood of refugees (both infected and otherwise) to start heading north. That would be bad.
Another thought: Perhaps this situation will result in otherwise stupid and ignorant people learning that the world is an exceedingly dangerous place. Modern society in an industrialized country is, if nothing else, insulated from the reality of nature. That reality? Damned near everything wants to or can kill you. Maybe some people will begin to figure out this rather uncomplicated truth.