An emergency room doctor who was the first Ebola patient in the nation's biggest city has recovered and is scheduled to be released from the hospital on Tuesday, health officials said.

Dr. Craig Spencer, who was the only Ebola patient being treated in the United States, has been declared free of the virus, the city Department of Health said Monday in a statement.

Spencer tested positive for the virus on Oct. 23, just days after returning from treating patients in Guinea with Doctors Without Borders. He has been treated in a specially designed isolation unit at Manhattan's Bellevue Hospital, a designated Ebola treatment center. His condition was upgraded from serious to stable last week, and he was feeling well enough to request an exercise bike and a banjo.

His fiancee and two friends initially were quarantined but were released and are being monitored along with hundreds of others, Associated Press reports.

Spencer, who's 33, is expected to issue a statement but not take questions when he's released from the hospital.

Health officials have stressed that Ebola is not airborne and can only be spread through direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person who is showing symptoms. Still, news of Spencer's infection set many New Yorkers on edge, particularly after details emerged that he rode the subway, dined in a meatball restaurant and visited a bowling alley in the days before he developed a fever and tested positive.