President Barack Obama said Wednesday his administration will respond to new Ebola cases “in a much more aggressive way,” taking charge of the issue after a second Texas health care worker was diagnosed with the disease.

Obama scrapped plans to attend Democratic fund-raisers in New Jersey and Connecticut on Wednesday afternoon so that he could huddle with Cabinet members and officials who are leading the administration’s Ebola response.

The meeting came amid questions about how two health care workers could have contracted Ebola in a country said to have strict protocols in place — and with one of those Ebola victims having flown on a commercial jet Monday.

Afterward, the President sought to tamp down fears of of an outbreak of the disease within the United States — saying that he shook hands with, hugged and kissed nurses who’d treated an American doctor who contracted Ebola in Africa, and felt safe.

Obama acknowledged that even foolproof plans don’t work when local health care providers don’t know how to carry them out — and said his administration will make sure “certain local hospitals that may not have that experience are walked through that process as carefully as possible.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will have “SWAT teams” ready to send to hospitals where future cases are discovered, he said.