Nancy Snyderman, the chief medical editor for NBC's "Today" show, apologized on Tuesday for breaking her self-imposed Ebola quarantine, USA Today reported.

Snyderman had taken an NBC News crew to Liberia, a country heavily affected by the recent outbreak of the deadly disease, and promised to quarantine herself upon her return to the United States. During her supposed 21-day isolation, however, she was spotted in her car outside a restaurant in Hopewell, New Jersey, the newspaper detailed.

"I'm very sorry for not only scaring my community and the country, but adding to the confusion of terms that I think came as fast and furious as the news about Ebola did," she told co-host Matt Lauer on "Today."

Snyderman attempted to explain her behavior by pointing to her dual role as a physician and a reporter, USA Today noted.

"I wear two hats -- I have my doctor hat and I have my journalist hat, and when the science and the messaging sometimes collide, and you leave the optics, in this case a hot zone and come back to the United States, good people can make mistakes," she said. "I stepped outside the boundaries of what I promised to do and what the public expected of me, and for that I'm sorry."

After her trip to Liberia, Snyderman has been absent from NBC for more than a month, according to the Huffington Post. A member of the news crew that accompanied her, cameraman Ashoka Mukpo, is a former Ebola patient, and the discovery that her colleague had contracted the virus "heightened fear among the public," the website analyzed.

Snyderman affirmed on "Today" that she had spent 72 hours in her home before leaving. She said she and her team were not "sensitive" enough to how "absolutely terrified" the American public was given the much-discussed Ebola outbreak.

During their trip, Snyderman and her team monitored their vitals and took their temperatures "four, five, six times a day," the medical editor said on "Today," the show said. "I would go back (to Liberia) tomorrow" Snyderman added. "My concern is that this has been a distraction from the real issue at hand. We can't afford to not to concentrate on West Africa."