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.

Duncan was sent home but returned by ambulance on Sept. 28 and was admitted. Two nurses who treated him during that second visit — Nina Pham and Amber Vinson — are now hospitalized with Ebola.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said those caring for Duncan were vulnerable because some of their skin was exposed.