New Jersey Releasing Quarantined Nurse

Photo Credit: AP / University of Texas at ArlingtonBy Associated Press.

New Jersey officials say a nurse who was quarantined after working in West Africa with Ebola patients is being released.

The state Health Department said in a statement Monday that Kaci Hickox had been symptom-free for 24 hours and would be taken on a private carrier to Maine.

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U.S. soldiers returning from Liberia monitored for Ebola in Italy

By CBS/AP.

U.S. soldiers returning from Liberia are being placed in isolation in Vicenza, Italy out of concern for the Ebola virus, CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports.

The soldiers being monitored include Maj. Gen. Darryl Williams who was the commander of the U.S. Army in Africa but turned over duties to the 101st Airborne Division over the weekend, Martin reports. There are currently 11 soldiers in isolation.

They apparently were met by Carabinieri in full hazmat suits. If the policy remains in effect, everyone returning from Liberia – several hundred – will be placed in isolation for 21 days. Thirty are expected in today, Martin reports.

A Pentagon spokesman calls it “enhanced monitoring.” The soldiers are confined to a building and unable to see their families, Martin reports. The decision made by the Army and applies only to soldiers returning from Liberia. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel will decide whether to make isolation apply to members of all services returning from Liberia.

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NYC Boy Being Observed for Possible Ebola Symptoms

By Thomson/Reuters.

A 5-year-old boy is being observed in isolation at Bellevue Hospital in New York City for possible Ebola symptoms, according to media reports on Monday.

The boy, who arrived in the United States on Saturday from Guinea, had a 103 degree Fahrenheit (39 degrees Celsius) fever, ABC News reported. He has not been tested for the virus and is not under quarantine, ABC said, citing officials with New York City’s health department.

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Photo Credit: NJ Governor’s Office Chris Christie insists he DIDN’T do U-turn under pressure from Obama after Ebola nurse is allowed to leave New Jersey hospital quarantine tent to return to Maine

By David Martosko and Francesca Chambers.

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said Monday morning that the release of a quarantined nurse by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention didn’t indicate that his state-level Ebola-containment policies had shifted at all.

‘I didn’t reverse any decision,’ he told reporters outside a campaign event for Florida Gov. Rick Scott. ‘If she was continuing to be ill she would have to stay. She hadn’t had any symptoms for 24 hours and she tested negative for Ebola so there’s no reason to keep her.’

A Christie spokesperson told MailOnline that nurse Kaci Hickox ‘was never going to be quarantined for 21 days in the hospital.’

State policy, she said, called for Hickox to be quarantined until she no longer had medical symptoms for at least 24 hours, after she arrived at Newark Liberty International Airport from west Africa.

New Jersey residents, the spokesperson explained, can be quarantined in their homes. But since Hickox is from Maine, her isolation had to be carried out at University Hospital, which was prepared to accept patients like her.

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