The culprit for the Ebola scare at Pentagon that prompted the police to close down the building's entrance and a parking lot Friday admitted to hospital officials she had fabricated the story about traveling to West Africa.

A public health investigation revealed that the woman who felt sick in the Pentagon parking lot did not have Ebola.

Like Us on Facebook

A source intimated with Fox News that despite the woman's earlier claim of traveling to Liberia, one of the three worst-hit countries in the recent Ebola outbreak, there was no evidence to prove she has been out of the country.

The unnamed woman who works for Total Spectrum, a public relations and lobbying firm, has no passport and has not been out of Washington, Fox News reported. Her boss at the firm, Steve Gordon, said, however, that she was suffering from a severe illness.

According to a Pentagon official who spoke on condition of anonymity, the woman was on a shuttle bus taking marines and other guests to a ceremony in the Marine Corps Barracks in Washington. She got off the bus before it left Pentagon on Friday morning. The official said the woman appeared to have not been invited to the event.

Gordon said her employee transfers busses in the Pentagon area during her daily commute to and from Fairfax County. He told The Washington Post he believes she was disoriented and mistook the marine shuttle for a public bus.

Reports indicated that after the incident, the passengers onboard the bus were quarantined until late afternoon Friday while the investigation continued. The woman was sent to Inova Fairfax Hospital in Northern Virginia for isolation.

The Defense Department cordoned off the parking area where the woman became ill until Friday afternoon. The entrance to the Pentagon building was also shut down.

In a statement, Arlington County Health Department said it has taken abundant precautionary measures to ensure the safety of the people attending the event, including activating the Emergency Operations Center. The statement noted the operations have been called off after the woman tested negative for Ebola virus.

The Washington Post observed that the incident showed the heightened anxiety over the spread of the deadly Ebola virus in the U.S. where three people have been infected so far. 

TagsEbola scare U.S., Ebola scare Pentagon, Ebola in U.S.