Kaci Hickox, Maine come to an agreement over Ebola restrictions

FORT KENT, Maine, Nov. 3 (UPI) -- Kaci Hickox and the state of Maine have agreed to a temporary order issued Friday that requires the nurse to be monitored daily but not placed under quarantine.

Judge Charles LaVerdiere signed the order Monday, making it permanent.

Under the order, Hickox, 33, agreed to submit to regular monitoring, will coordinate her travel with the state and will immediately notify health officials if she begins to experience any potential symptoms of Ebola, until 11:59 p.m. Nov. 10, when 21 days will have passed since her last exposure to Ebola.

"We are very pleased with this resolution," Hickox's attorney Eric Saunders said. "It was a negotiated resolution, which are generally the best."

"I think the state was searching for a resolution that would protect the public, and we were searching for a resolution that would protect Kaci's civil rights," Sunders said. "I think we reached some common ground."

Saunders, who worked the case pro bono, said the order would not apply to any other heathcare workers returning from treating Ebola patients in West Africa.

"I believe we must do everything in our power not to fan the flames of fear but to encourage public health professionals such as Kaci Hickox to continue their brave humanitarian work to control this deadly disease and to welcome them home when they return," Attorney General Janet Mills had said Friday, following LaVerdiere's decision.

Hickox's boyfriend, Ted Wilbur, has also reached a voluntary agreement with the University of Maine at Fort Kent, where he is a nursing student. Wilbur agreed to stay away after students expressed concerns he had been exposed to the virus, but both university officials and an attorney for Wilbur said the agreement may be revisited.

Fort Kent officials are also combating a false report that appeared on a satire website, Amplifying Glass, that Hickox had been admitted to a local hospital demonstrating Ebola symptoms.

"This is a very disturbing post," said Fort Kent chief of police Tom Pelletier, who said he has received calls from people worried after seeing the story.

"When you look at the comments below the story, there are people who say this is satire," Pelletier said. "But then I get the guy down the road who reads it and does not know the difference and is calling me all worried we have Ebola in town."

Hickox returned from treating Ebola patients in Sierra Leone in late October and was placed under quarantine in Newark, N.J. She returned to Maine last week. She has shown no symptoms of Ebola and has tested negative for the virus.