The nurse who challenged Maine’s quarantine policy for healthcare workers returning from west Africa must monitor her health for one more week, but is free to leave her home under a deal reached on Monday.
The state of Maine and lawyers for the nurse, Kaci Hickox, agreed to make permanent the terms of a temporary court order issued on Friday by judge Charles C LaVerdiere, the chief judge for the state’s district courts.
“It’s excellent,” Steve Hyman, one of Hickox’s lawyers, said. The agreement brings to a close the first legal attempt by a state to enforce a quarantine policy on healthcare workers returning from Ebola-affected region of west Africa.
Hickox, 33, must monitor her health and report any Ebola symptoms until her 21-day incubation period ends at 11.59pm on 10 November. She is not, however, restricted from leaving her home and visiting public places. She also must coordinate travel with health officials so her monitoring isn’t interrupted.
Maine officials had attempted to bar Hickox from public gatherings and force her to stay 3ft from others, but on Friday the judge lifted those requirements, even though they abided by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines.
While Hickox is free from quarantine, her boyfriend, Ted Wilbur, with whom she lives in Fort Kent, is keeping away from the University of Maine campus where he is a nursing student.
Wilbur told reporters he was asked to stay away from campus while Hickox is under monitoring, but the university said the decision was reached mutually.
Ray Phinney, the associate dean of student life and development at the University of Maine at Fort Kent, said the decision to stay away is voluntary, and that the school is willing to reconsider the agreement. He said the university worked to accommodate Wilbur, offering him the option to take his classes online.
Phinney said the decision was made to ensure students feel safe on campus, which he described as small. “We understand the science behind [the Ebola virus], but also that there are legitimate fears among communities,” he said.
Speaking to NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday, Hickox said Wilbur should be allowed to return to school, as he poses no threat to others. The agreement remained in effect on Monday.
Still, Hickox said she was sympathetic to those in her town, and implied that she would stay away from public places even though she is not restricted from doing so.
“I will not go into town, into crowded public places,” she told NBC. “You know, I have had a few friends come visit me in my home, and that’s absolutely fantastic.”
Hickox became the center of a contentious debate on how to treat healthcare workers returning from Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone after she was detained at Newark airport in New Jersey. Despite testing negative for Ebola and displaying no symptoms, she was kept in an isolation tent at an area hospital for some days before Chris Christie, the New Jersey governor, agreed to her release.
She returned to her home in Fort Kent, a small town near the Canadian border, where state officials attempted to place her under quarantine. Hickox refused, even threatening to defy the quarantine order if it was not lifted. She left her home for the first time on Thursday.
New York and New Jersey’s mandatory 21-day quarantine policy inspired similar requirements in several states across the US, despite widespread criticism from the medical establishment, the White House and the UN.
Hickox and her lawyers argued that the state-mandated quarantine measure was not based on science, and infringed on her civil liberties.
Hyman, Hickox’s lawyer, said he hopes other states weighing restrictive quarantine policies on healthcare workers take note of the judge’s decision, but he said he is not optimistic.
“We are troubled that other states seem to be mimicking New York and New Jersey and have imposed restrictions that make no medical sense,” he said.
