Kaci Hickox, the nurse who insists she is Ebola-free after a stint in West Africa helping people suffering from the deadly disease, can probably continue to ride her bike and go outside, but movies, shopping and riding the bus are out under a court order issued Friday by a judge in Maine.
Hickox had said she will defy the state's effort to impose a 21-day quarantine on her, prompting state officials to go to district court, where Judge Charles LaVerdiere ruled Friday that the nurse must face some restrictions. But the judge's order bars her from using "long distance commercial conveyances or local public conveyances," forbids her from showing up at shopping centers or movie theaters and mandates she maintains a three-foot distance from others when outside.
"This decision has critical implications for {Hickox's} freedom, as guaranteed by the U.S. and Maine Constitutions, as well as the public's right to be protected from the potential severe harm posed by transmission of this devastating disease," LaVerdiere wrote in the two-page decision.