A nurse who was quarantined in New Jersey on Friday under a new Ebola policy enforced by the governor will be allowed to return home, state health officials said Monday.
Kaci Hickox, who tested negative for Ebola on Monday, lashed out at Governor Chris Christie after he and New York's governor imposed a mandatory 21-day quarantine for travelers who came in contact with Ebola patients in West Africa.
The nurse claimed her human rights were being violated and threatened legal action, but on Monday the state's Department of Health said the epidemiologist will be going home to Maine.
"She will remain subject to New Jersey's mandatory quarantine order while in New Jersey," the department said according to Boston.com. "Health officials in Maine have been notified of her arrangements and will make a determination under their own laws on her treatment when she arrives."
Hickox arrived at Newark Liberty International Airport from Sierra Leone, where she treated patients stricken with the virus that has claimed nearly 5,000 lives and sickened twice as many in West Africa since March.
Her quarantine at University Hospital in Newark is part of what both Christie and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo called a necessary response to protect the public health.
The nurse slammed Christie for describing her as "obviously ill."
"I am not, as he said, 'obviously ill,' " Hickox told CNN. "I am completely healthy and with no symptoms. And if he knew anything about Ebola he would know that asymptomatic people are not infectious."
State health officials said the nurse will not travel home "via mass transit or commercial aircraft," CNN reported. Instead she will arrive in Maine on a private carrier. It is not clear when exactly she will be discharged.
Christie, currently in Florida campaigning for Governor Rick Scott, defended the mandated quarantine.
"I know she didn't want to be there. No one ever wants to be in the hospital, I suspect, and so I understand that," the Republican governor said according to CNN. "But the fact is I have a much greater, bigger responsibility to the people and the public, and so I think when she has time to reflect she will understand that as well."
