Judge issues order enforcing Ebola isolation of defiant Maine nurse Kaci Hickox

Kaci Hickox (centre) returns to her home surrounded by media after going for a bike ride with boyfriend Ted Wilbur in Fort Kent, Maine Oct 30, 2014. The confrontation between the state of Maine andHickox,  a nurse who treated Ebola patients
Kaci Hickox (centre) returns to her home surrounded by media after going for a bike ride with boyfriend Ted Wilbur in Fort Kent, Maine Oct 30, 2014. The confrontation between the state of Maine andHickox,  a nurse who treated Ebola patients in Sierra Leone, heated up on Friday when a judge issued a temporary order enforcing a quarantine after she defied state officials and went on a bike ride. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

WASHINGTON (REUTERS) - The confrontation between the state of Maine and a nurse who treated Ebola patients in Sierra Leone heated up on Friday when a judge issued a temporary order enforcing a quarantine after she defied state officials and took a bike ride.

The order from Charles LaVerdiere, chief judge of the Maine District Court, instructs nurse Kaci Hickox to submit to "direct active monitoring," and "not to be present in public places" like shopping centres, movie theatres, or workplaces except to receive necessary health care.

The temporary order permits her to engage in what the judge called "non-congregate public activities" like walking or jogging in the park but instructs her to maintain a 1m distance from other people.

The quarantine confrontation between Hickox and Maine has become the focal point of a struggle between several US states opting for stringent measures to guard against Ebola and a federal government wary of discouraging potential medical volunteers to fight the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

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