But Kaci Hickox also said on NBC's Meet the Press that she would not go into town or into public places during the 21-day incubation period that will end Nov. 10.
"I understand that the community has been through a lot in the past week and I apologize to them for that," she said. "I have had a few friends come visit me in my home and that's absolutely fantastic."
Hickox, 33, was stopped Oct. 24 at Newark Liberty International Airport after her return from Sierra Leone, one of the nations hardest hit by the Ebola outbreak that has killed more than 5,000 people in West Africa. She was held in an isolation tent in New Jersey for three days under that state's strict new rule for health care workers who have recently treated Ebola patients in West Africa.
Hickox has not displayed symptoms of Ebola and was allowed to leave New Jersey Monday, traveling by private car to Fort Kent, Maine, a town of 4,000 people near the Canadian border. Maine Gov. Paul LePage and state health officials ordered her to be quarantined in her home until the end of the incubation period for the disease.
Hickox challenged the order in court and won. District Court Chief Judge Charles LaVerdiere ordered Hickox only to submit to monitoring, coordinate travel with public health officials and notify health authorities should symptoms appear. Hickox expressed gratitude for the decision, which she said was based on science.
But she also said she wanted to ensure that local residents were at ease over the situation.
"Sometimes we fight for our rights, but it doesn't mean we have to act on them," she told the Maine Sunday Telegram. "I hope in six months aid workers returning back can be unnoticed. They won't be in the media like I was, I hope."
"And they can walk into a grocery store and maybe no one even knows they were working in a country with Ebola. But one day I hope everyone can know and still smile at them in the grocery store. I know that won't happen today."
"I understand that the community has been through a lot in the past week and I apologize to them for that," she said. "I have had a few friends come visit me in my home and that's absolutely fantastic."
Hickox, 33, was stopped Oct. 24 at Newark Liberty International Airport after her return from Sierra Leone, one of the nations hardest hit by the Ebola outbreak that has killed more than 5,000 people in West Africa. She was held in an isolation tent in New Jersey for three days under that state's strict new rule for health care workers who have recently treated Ebola patients in West Africa.
Hickox has not displayed symptoms of Ebola and was allowed to leave New Jersey Monday, traveling by private car to Fort Kent, Maine, a town of 4,000 people near the Canadian border. Maine Gov. Paul LePage and state health officials ordered her to be quarantined in her home until the end of the incubation period for the disease.
Hickox challenged the order in court and won. District Court Chief Judge Charles LaVerdiere ordered Hickox only to submit to monitoring, coordinate travel with public health officials and notify health authorities should symptoms appear. Hickox expressed gratitude for the decision, which she said was based on science.
But she also said she wanted to ensure that local residents were at ease over the situation.
"Sometimes we fight for our rights, but it doesn't mean we have to act on them," she told the Maine Sunday Telegram. "I hope in six months aid workers returning back can be unnoticed. They won't be in the media like I was, I hope."
"And they can walk into a grocery store and maybe no one even knows they were working in a country with Ebola. But one day I hope everyone can know and still smile at them in the grocery store. I know that won't happen today."
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