NEW YORK, N.Y. - Health officials have designated 35 hospitals across the country as Ebola treatment centres.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released the list of hospitals on Tuesday. Most are clustered in metropolitan areas like New York City, San Francisco, Minneapolis and Washington D.C.

For more than a month, health officials have been talking to — and evaluating —hospitals that could serve as referral treatment centres for new Ebola cases that might occur. A team from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention assessed more than 50 hospitals in 15 states and Washington, federal officials said.

The 35 hospitals are deemed to have the staff, equipment and training to safely and effectively care for Ebola, the government said.

More hospitals will be added over the next several weeks to provide wider geographic coverage, officials said.

West Africa is currently suffering the worst Ebola outbreak in history, with more than 17,100 illnesses and at least 6,000 deaths so far. Four cases have been diagnosed in the United States.

The designated hospitals are:

Kaiser Oakland Medical Center, Oakland, California.

Kaiser South Sacramento Medical Center, Sacramento, California.

University of California Davis Medical Center, Sacramento, California.

University of California San Francisco Medical Center, San Francisco.

Emory University Hospital, Atlanta.

Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago.

Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Chicago.

Rush University Medical Center, Chicago.

University of Chicago Medical Center, Chicago.

Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore.

University of Maryland Medical Center, Baltimore.

National Institutes of Health Clinical Center, Bethesda, Maryland.

Allina Health's Unity Hospital, Fridley, Minnesota.

Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota, St. Paul, Minnesota.

Mayo Clinic Hospital, Rochester, Minnesota.

University of Minnesota Medical Center, Minneapolis.

Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha.

Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, New Brunswick, New Jersey.

North Shore System LIJ/Glen Cove Hospital, Glen Cove, New York.

Montefiore Medical Center, New York.

New York-Presbyterian/Allen Hospital, New York.

Bellevue Hospital Center, New York.

The Mount Sinai Hospital, New York.

Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia.

Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.

University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, Texas.

Methodist Richardson Medical Center, Richardson, Texas.

University of Virginia Medical Center, Charlottesville, Virginia.

Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center, Richmond, Virginia.

Children's Hospital of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Froedtert Hospital, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

University of Wisconsin Hospital, Madison, Wisconsin.

MedStar Washington Hospital Center, Washington, D.C.

Children's National Medical Center, Washington, D.C.

George Washington University Hospital, Washington, D.C.

News from © The Associated Press, 2014