US judge restricts movement of Ebola nurse
October 31, 2014
After violating a quarantine order, US nurse Kaci Hickox was temporarily barred from public places on Friday. Judge Charles LaVerdiere handed down the order the day after Hickox and her boyfriend left their home in the northeastern state of Maine for a bike ride.
The chief judge of the Maine District Court banned the 33-year-old nurse from entering public places such as cinemas, shopping centers or workplaces. She has also been instructed to maintain a three-foot (one meter) distance from other people when walking or jogging, submit to direct monitoring, coordinate her travel with health authorities and avoid public transport.
Hickox had been kept in an isolation tent in New Jersey for three days following her recent return from Sierra Leone where she treated Ebola patients. The New Jersey authorities allowed her to leave on Monday because she tested negative for Ebola.
However, her home state of Maine imposed its own quarantine, a restriction which she had vowed to fight.
"They will not allow me to leave my house and have any interaction with the public, even though I am completely healthy and symptom-free," Hickox told reporters outside of her home on Wednesday.
Amid controversy over quarantine measures, President Barack Obama has emphasized that those who volunteered on the front lines in the fight against Ebola should be celebrated as "American heroes."
"They deserve our gratitude, and they deserve to be treated with dignity and with respect," Obama said this week.
das/kms (AFP, Reuters)