6:15 p.m. ET: Ending the day on good news. A child who was being monitored at Bellevue Hospital in New York City for Ebola-like symptoms has tested negative for the virus, according to the New York City Department of Health. According to city health officials, the patient had traveled within the past 21 days from one of the three West African countries experiencing the outbreak. The hospital is continuing to monitor and test the child for respiratory infections.

“Out of an abundance of caution, further negative Ebola tests are required on subsequent days to ensure that the patient is cleared,’’ said the statement from NYC health officials. “The patient will remain in isolation until all test results have returned.’’


4:40 p.m. ET: “People want to do the right thing.’’ At a media briefing Monday afternoon, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention outlined new active monitoring protocols for travelers entering the United States in New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, New Jersey and Georgia, from Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea.

First, let’s outline the CDC’s risk levels:

High risk: A traveler from Sierra Leone, Liberia, or Guinea who was exposed to Ebola while they were in those countries through a needle stick, blood, bodily fluids, or a dead body without wearing appropriate personal protective equipment. This would also include someone who lived with and cared for someone while they showed symptoms of Ebola without wearing protective gear.

Some risk: A traveler from Sierra Leone, Liberia, or Guinea who may have been in the household of an Ebola patient but who didn’t provide direct care or have close contact. Close contact is defined as being within three feet of a patient for a long time without protective gear. This would also include a health care worker that returns from caring for patients with Ebola who wore appropriate protective gear.

Low risk: A traveler who is a health care worker that is working/has worked at a US facility caring for an individual with Ebola: Emory Hospital in Atlanta, Ga., National Institutes of Health Clinical Care Center in Bethesda, Md., and Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, Neb. Someone who was in the same room as someone with Ebola for a brief period of time or someone who had brief skin contact with an Ebola patient when their symptoms first began. Traveling on an airplane with a person who is showing symptoms of Ebola is also considered low risk.


No identified risk: A traveler who did not travel to Sierra Leone, Liberia, or Guinea and who did not care for an Ebola patient in the United States. Someone who had contact with a person before they showed symptoms of Ebola or who traveled to a country in the Ebola outbreak more than 21 days ago.

If you fall into any of the above categories, here’s how the CDC will monitor you:

You’re at a high risk: Travelers at high risk will first be examined at a hospital to ensure they aren’t displaying symptoms of the virus. Once they are cleared, the high risk individual needs to quarantine themselves at their home, but they would not be permitted to travel by public conveyance: airplane, train, or bus. They can charter a car. They will be actively monitored by the CDC with daily phone calls and in-person visits to discuss their symptoms and health status (called direct active monitoring). They are also restricted from public activities

You’re at some risk: Travelers at some risk will need to quarantine themselves at their home, but it’s up to the public health authority to take the responsibility for monitoring the individual’s symptoms and temperature daily through direct active monitoring. Decisions about public interaction and transportation will be evaluated with the public health officials and the destination and method of travel will need to be approved.

You’re at low risk: Travelers at low risk will need to participate in active daily monitoring of their symptoms and health status. These individuals must take their own temperatures twice daily and report health status to public health officials for 21 days.


In the briefing, Dr. Tom Frieden, the director of the CDC, said the mandatory quarantines (the type rolled out in New York and New Jersey over the weekend) turn “heroic’’ people working overseas to stop the outbreak into “paraiahs.’’ He also said this will have devastating affects on combating the outbreak: “If we turn them into pariahs instead of recognizing the heroic work they’re doing, they may be less likely to disclose their health care status, and they may be less likely to go help stop it at the source in West Africa. This increases the risk to all of us.’’

According to the CDC, data collected during this year’s Ebola outbreak in Africa has revealed that more than 90 percent of all cases will occur in the first two weeks or roughly 10 days after the exposure.

“People want to do the right thing, and from what I’m hearing from returning health care workers and others is that they are concerned that they are caring for themselves properly and are responsible individuals,’’ said Dr. Frieden.

2:30 p.m. ET: Will we quarantine in the Bay State? At a press event in Roxbury Monday morning, Mass. Governor Deval Patrick told local reporters that the decision on whether or not to quarantine health care workers traveling back from treating patients in West Africa will rest with the public health officials.

When asked whether or not Massachusetts has a plan for quarantining people, Gov. Patrick responded: “We don’t need a plan to quarantine. We’re doing what the CDC has advised, and I think we are well prepared.’’

Gov. Patrick didn’t have a specific comment on the actions by New York and New Jersey over the weekend, but addressed the quarantines more generally: “I understand people’s anxiety, but there are health protocols about where risk is high and where it is not, and how to ensure that where risk is high, we deal with it, including isolations where someone is presenting symptoms and has been exposed in that respect, but we haven’t had those situations, and we’re prepared to intervene if we do.’’

12:00 p.m. ET: US soldiers stuck in Italy. Commander of the U.S. Army Africa and 10 additional military personnel are currently in “controlled monitoring’’ in Italy, Pentagon officials told CNN. The soldiers were returning home from 30 days of work in West Africa via Italy. When their plane landed, Italian authorities escorted them from their plane in hazmat gear. The group will be moved to a US military site in Vicenza, Italy, where they will be monitored for 21 days.

9:50 a.m. ET: Out of the tent, into the light. Kaci Hickox, the nurse from Maine who recently returned from West Africa and was quarantined for the past three days at University Hospital in Newark, N.J. after landing at Newark International Airport, has been cleared to return home by the state’s public health officials.

Hickox tested negative for Ebola the morning of Oct. 27, and the State of New Jersey Department of Health said Monday morning that she has been symptom-free for 24 hours.

“She will remain subject to New Jersey’s mandatory quarantine order while in New Jersey,’’ said the State of New Jersey Department of Health in a statement. “Health officials in Maine have been notified of her arrangements and will make a determination under their own laws on her treatment when she arrives.’’

Her treatment during her quarantine has been criticized by Hickox and federal and public health officials.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, at a campaign event Monday, said “when she has time to reflect, she’ll understand,’’ according to The Associated Press.

9:07 a.m. ET: Child Being Tested in NYC Hospital, Official Says: A five-year-old boy who recently returned to the US from Guinea is being tested for Ebola at New York City’s Bellevue Hospital after being brought to the hospital with a fever, the city’s health department commissioner said Monday, according to a BuzzFeed report.

Test results are expected to be announced later Monday, according to the report.

7:40 a.m. ET: In it to win it: Samantha Power, the US ambassador to the United Nations, pledged the long-term support of the United States in the fight against the Ebola virus.

‘‘We have got to overcome the fear and the stigma that are associated with Ebola,’’ Power said during a meeting with religious leaders in Guinea, where the Ebola outbreak was first identified in March, according to The Associated Press.

Power will be in Sierra Leone Monday.

The latest numbers:

Number of cases worldwide in the current outbreak: 9,936

Number of deaths: 4,877

Countries currently affected by Ebola: Mali, Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Spain, and the United States of America.

Countries where the outbreak has ended: Nigeria (Oct. 19), Senegal (Oct. 17)

And here’s your daily reminder not to panic:

The likelihood of contracting Ebola in Massachusetts remains very low, according to the state’s public health officials. You have to be in direct contact with an infected person’s bodily fluids while they are contagious (displaying symptoms of Ebola). Even if someone has been exposed, symptoms may appear in as little as two days, and in as many as 21 days, after exposure. The CDC says the average is 8 to 10 days.

Ebola symptoms:

– Fever (greater than 38.6°C or 101.5°F)

– Severe headache

– Muscle pain

– Weakness

– Diarrhea

– Vomiting

– Abdominal (stomach) pain

– Unexplained hemorrhage (bleeding or bruising)

Need more details? Here’s an MGH physician dropping some knowledge for you.