A CAIRNS nurse cleared of contracting the deadly Ebola virus will remain in hospital until at least Monday while she undergoes further testing.
SUE Ellen Kovack, 57, remains in isolation in Cairns Hospital and will have a second round of testing on Sunday.
She will have to wait for those results to come back before she is able to return home. She tested negative to Ebola after initial results were returned early Friday. There were fears Ms Kovack could have been Australia’s first case of Ebola, given she recently returned from volunteering at hospitals in Sierra Leone – one of the countries hardest hit by the virus that has more than 4000 lives in West Africa. Ms Kovack isolated herself at home on her return, but reported to authorities she had a low-grade fever, as per normal protocol, and was admitted to hospital on Thursday. A Queensland Health spokesman told AAP on Saturday most of Ms Kovack’s symptoms had subsided. “She still has a bit of a sore throat and is tired, which you could expect given the circumstances,” the spokesman said. Queensland Health is expected to provide updates on Ms Kovack’s condition throughout the weekend. The Red Cross worker returned from Sierra Leone, via Casablanca and Dubai, then made her way through Perth and Melbourne to Cairns. But authorities have moved to allay fears Ms Kovack could have spread the virus, which can only be contracted by coming into contact with secretions of an infected person.