John Bacon
Passengers aboard a Carnival Cruise Lines ship were let off in Galveson, Texas, Sunday after a health care worker who was being monitored for Ebola quarantined herself in her room. (Oct. 19) AP
The health care worker who was being monitored for signs of Ebola aboard a Carnival Cruise Lines ship passed a blood test and was allowed to leave with other passengers when the ship docked Sunday in Texas, health officials said.
"We are able to confirm that the (Ebola) test was negative," Galveston County Health Authority spokesman Kurt Koopman said in an e-mail to USA TODAY shortly after the Carnival Magic docked in Galveston.
The woman had handled specimens from the USA's first confirmed Ebola patient, Thomas Eric Duncan, who died Oct. 8 at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas.
"The Galveston County Health Authority has made the assessment that there is no evidence of a public health threat to cruise passengers or to Galveston County. The passenger and her travel partner have been allowed to disembark without restrictions," county health officials said in a statement.
When the cruise left from Galveston on Oct. 12, the woman had only been required to "self-monitor" for fever or other Ebola symptoms. The woman, who has not been named, at no point showed signs of the virus and was considered asymptomatic, the Coast Guard said.
She was voluntarily isolated on the Carnival Magic, which has a capacity of almost 4,000 passengers and crew. No restrictions had been placed on passengers during the one-week cruise.
A Coast Guard helicopter had flown to the ship Saturday and received samples from the health care worker for testing in Austin.
Passengers learned through a public address system announcement that one of the passengers was being monitored for Ebola. Carnival Cruise Lines had said that the woman, a lab supervisor, was "not deemed to be a risk to any guests or crew."
But on Thursday, Belize refused to let the passenger leave the vessel for what would have been a precautionary medical helicopter flight home. A spokeswoman for the cruise line, Jennifer De La Cruz, said other passengers were allowed to disembark with the exception of the health care worker and her spouse.
On Friday, the ship was refused clearance to dock in Cozumel, Mexico, for what would have been a highlight of the cruise. Travelers snapped pictures of the Coast Guard helicopter as it landed to get a blood sample from the passenger.
"We weren't worried. We ended up just hanging out and enjoying the rest of the trip," said Meredith Brooks, a Houston banker who was on her honeymoon during the cruise.
Contributing: KHOU-TV Houston; Associated Press
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Tim Tuck of Oklahoma holds an Ebola virus fact sheet that crew aboard the Carnival Magic passed out to passengers disembarking in Galveston. (Photo: Jennifer Reynolds, AP)
The Carnival Magic docks at Pier 25 in Galveston. (Photo: Jennifer Reynolds, AP)
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Texas Health Presybterian hospital nurse Nina Pham is helped out of the back of an ambulance on the runway at Love Field airport in Dallas. (Photo: Chip Somodevilla, Getty Images)
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Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, waits for the start of the hearing. (Photo: Jack Gruber, USA TODAY)
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An aid worker from the Liberian Medical Renaissance League stages an Ebola awareness event in Monrovia. (Photo: John Moore, Getty Images)
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A Liberian Red Cross burial team gears up to collect bodies of Ebola victims in the Point Four community. (Photo: Ahmed Jallanzo, European Pressphoto Agency)
Protect Environmental workers move disposal barrels to a staging area outside the apartment of Nina Pham in Dallas. (Photo: Brandon Wade, AP)
A hazmat worker wipes his head with a towel outside Nina Pham's apartment in Dallas. (Photo: Mike Stone, Getty Images)
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A hazmat crew cleans outside the Dallas apartment where a health care worker at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital lives. (Photo: Larry W. Smith, epa)
A man dressed in protective hazmat clothing leaves after treating the front porch and sidewalk of the apartment. (Photo: Mike Stone, Getty Images)
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U.S. Marines and Liberian troops set up a landing zone at the construction site of an Ebola treatment center on Oct. 11 in Tubmanburg, Liberia. (Photo: John Moore, Getty Images)
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People wear masks at JFK Terminal 4 for international arrivals in Jamaica, N.Y., on Oct. 11. JFK Airport screens passengers arriving from countries impacted by the Ebola virus. (Photo: Jennifer S. Altman for USA TODAY)
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Dolls lie on the grave of a victim at the Fing Tom cemetery in Freetown. (Photo: Florian Plaucher, AFP/Getty Images)
Medical practitioners shout against Spain's Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy during his visit to the Carlos III hospital in Madrid, Spain, Friday, Oct. 10, 2014. A Spanish hospital official says the nursing assistant infected with Ebola is "stable," hours after authorities described her condition as critical. She is the first person known to have caught the disease outside the outbreak zone in West Africa. She contracted the virus while helping treat a Spanish missionary who became infected in West Africa, and later died. (AP Photo/Daniel Ochoa de Olza) ORG XMIT: DO113 (Photo: Daniel Ochoa de Olza, AP)
Medical staff monitor passengers' body temperature with a thermal camera on OCt. 10 at Skopje Airport, Republic of Macedonia. (Photo: Georgi Licovski, European Pressphoto Agency)
An airport worker wears a protective face mask in the arrivals area at the Los Angeles International Airport. (Photo: Mark Ralston, AFP/Getty Images)
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A health worker takes the temperature of U.S. Marines arriving to help stem the Ebola outbreak during Operation United Assistance near Monrovia, Liberia. Ninety Marines will support the American effort to contain the epidemic. (Photo: John Moore, Getty Images)
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A youth under quarantine sits outside his house in Moyamba, a town on the outskirts of Freetown, Sierra Leone. (Photo: Michael Duff, AP)
U.S. Air Force personnel put up tents to house a 25-bed U.S.-built hospital for sick Liberian health workers as part of Operation United Assistance in Monrovia, Liberia. President Obama has committed up to 4,000 troops in West Africa to combat the Ebola epidemic. (Photo: John Moore, Getty Images)
U.S. Marines arrive as part of Operation United Assistance in Monrovia, Liberia. Around 90 Marines, the largest group of U.S. military yet, arrived on MV-22 Ospreys and KC-130 transport planes to support the American effort to contain the Ebola epidemic. (Photo: John Moore, Getty Images)
U.S Marines arrive at the Roberts International airport in Monrovia, Liberia. (Photo: Abbas Dulleh, AP)
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