DALLAS — Ebola fears began to ease for some today as a monitoring period passed for those who had close contact with a victim of the disease and after a cruise ship scare ended with the boat returning to port and a lab worker on board testing negative for the virus.

Federal officials meanwhile ramped up readiness to deal with future cases. A top government official said revised guidance instructs health workers treating Ebola patients to wear protective gear “with no skin showing.” The Pentagon said it is forming a team to support civilian medical staff in the U.S.

In Dallas, Louise Troh and several friends and family members will finally be free today to leave a stranger’s home where they have been confined under armed guard for 21 days — the maximum incubation period for Ebola. They had close contact with Thomas Eric Duncan, a Liberian man who died of the disease at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital on Oct. 8.

“I want to breathe, I want to really grieve, I want privacy with my family,” Troh said.

The incubation period also has passed for about a dozen health workers who encountered Duncan when he went to the Dallas hospital for the first time, on Sept. 25.