OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Doctors in Nebraska treating a U.S. doctor battling the Ebola virus say they now expect him to make a full recovery.

Fifty-one-year-old Rick Sacra contracted Ebola while working at a hospital in Liberia. He’s been hospitalized in Omaha since Sept. 5.

Dr. Phil Smith is the medical director of the Nebraska Medical Center isolation unit where Sacra is being treated. Smith said Wednesday that an initial set of blood samples from Sacra sent to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed a decreased amount of the virus in his blood

Doctors are now awaiting results of a second set of blood samples.

Dr. Angela Hewlett, associate medical director of the unit, says there must be two negative blood tests done 24 hours apart for Sacra to be released.