OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — An American video journalist who has recovered from Ebola will soon head home to Rhode Island with his family.

Nebraska Medical Center officials said Wednesday that Ashoka Mukpo, who had contracted the virus while working in Liberia as a freelance cameraman for NBC and other media outlets, was released from the hospital’s biocontainment unit around 9 a.m., but had not left the hospital complex by late morning.

In a statement read by Dr. Jeffrey Gold, the University of Nebraska Medical Center chancellor, Mukpo said: “Today is a joyful day.” Mukpo, of Providence, Rhode Island, did not attend the news conference.

Hospital officials had said Tuesday that Mukpo’s blood tested negative for the virus. He had arrived Oct. 6 and was the second Ebola patient to be treated there.