Dr. Craig Spencer, a New York doctor who was admitted to the city’s Bellevue hospital with Ebola on Oct. 23, was discharged on Tuesday after being declared free of the virus.

Spencer, 30, walked out of the hospital’s emergency room on Tuesday morning to cheers from the health care workers who treated him. He was joined at a podium by Mayor Bill de Blasio, who called it “a very, very good day.”

“Dr. Spencer is Ebola free, and New York City is Ebola free,” de Blasio said, hugging the doctor, who he commended for helping people in need. “It is a good feeling to hug a hero,” the mayor said. “Dr. Spencer has shown what it means to help your fellow human.”

Mayor @BilldeBlasio hugs New York Ebola patient Dr. Craig Spencer — “an inspiration.” pic.twitter.com/3PW8yKWozg

— MashableLIVE (@MashableLive) November 11, 2014

“Today is proof that proper preparedness and erring on the side of caution can save lives,” New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said in a statement. “On behalf of all New Yorkers, I am greatly relieved to hear of Dr. Spencer’s recovery and thank him for his important and heroic work on the front lines of this devastating epidemic in West Africa.”

Today is proof that proper preparedness & erring on side of caution can save lives. Statement on Dr. Spencer release: http://t.co/JRUrk2ttxK

— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) November 11, 2014

Spencer’s diagnosis, the city’s first, and set off a widespread containment effort that resulted in four quarantines (including his girlfriend, two friends, and a nurse who arrived in New Jersey at the wrong place and the wrong time). More than 300 people who came into indirect contact with Dr. Spencer underwent active monitoring by city health officials in the weeks that followed.

This story is developing…