Evacuees in isolation at Travis AFB
178 Americans flown from China on 14-day quarantine
A chartered plane Wednesday evacuated 178 Americans from the heart of the coronavirus outbreak zone in China — including a feverish child — to Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield where they will be quarantined for 14 days.
The new evacuations are occurring amid an alarming spike in the global death toll, including the second death outside mainland China, and a growing number of confirmed cases. None of the evacuees who arrived overnight at Travis on a State Department flight are known to be infected. Health officials stressed that the risk of infection to the
American public remains low — with the number of confirmed U.S. cases holding at 11 and no reported deaths.
But a “small child” among the new arrivals at Travis “had a fever on the flight and is being evaluated now at a nearby hospital,” said Dr. Henry Walke, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Division of Preparedness and Emerging Infections.
“Children have fever for a number of different reasons,” Walke said at an afternoon news conference at Travis. “We know the situation may be concerning to others. We think the risk to the American public is low. That’s why we are taking these aggressive measures to minimize the risk.”
The evacuees, who range in age from 2 to 65, were aboard one of two planes carrying some 350 passengers out of China that landed at Travis early Wednesday. The other plane refueled and continued on to Miramar Marine Corps Air Station in San Diego County, the base reported.
Two other chartered planes from China are expected to arrive by Thursday at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, and Eppley Airfield in Omaha, Nebraska, said Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, in a Wednesday news briefing. She did not have a count of the total number of evacuees
on all four planes.
Last week, a plane carrying 195 Americans — mostly State Department employees and their children — landed at March Air Reserve Base in Riverside County. On Monday, one of the children on that flight was hospitalized after developing a fever. That child was tested for coronavirus, Riverside County officials said Monday, and results are expected later this week.
The evacuees at Travis will be quarantined at the base’s Westwind Inn hotel for 14 days, overseen by CDC personnel. They were not identified and Walke would not detail their occupations. They were living in Hubei province, where the outbreak originated, putting them at high risk for exposure, he said.
“Medical personnel have been screening and monitoring these folks every step of the way, checking for respiratory symptoms and checking temperature,” Walke said. “Anyone showing signs of illness will be transported to a nearby medical facility for isolation and care.”
The news comes as health authorities in the U.S. and around the world scramble to contain the coronavirus epidemic that erupted in China last month. According to Reuters, the National Health Commission in China reported Wednesday that the virus has sickened more than 28,000 people in that country and killed 563, which includes one death in Hong Kong. The virus has also spread to 24 countries outside of mainland China, including the U.S. Another
death was reported in the Philippines.
The 11 confirmed U.S. cases include six in California — four of them in the Bay Area. On Tuesday, Santa Clara County health authorities said five workers at Good Samaritan Hospital in San Jose who had been exposed to the virus by a person identified as the county’s first case, were sent home for 11 days to avoid exposing others, though they were not reported to be ill. A second unrelated person in Santa Clara County has been diagnosed with the coronavirus, as well as a San Benito County couple who were taken to a San Francisco hospital for treatment.
U.S. authorities imposed enhanced screening of airline passengers, barring entry of foreign nationals who have traveled to Wuhan in recent weeks and subjecting U.S. citizens, family members and legal residents who recently traveled to mainland China to health screening and possible 14day quarantine. There is a possibility that someone who is infected but not yet exhibiting signs of illness can still spread the virus to others.
It is the first time in half a century that U.S. officials have quarantined citizens in such a manner, Walke said. The 14-day period, he said, is the outside range of developing symptoms after exposure. Most develop symptoms within a week, he said.
A number of airlines have canceled flights to and from China amid plummeting demand as businesses curtail travel to the country and
tourism evaporates. United Airlines announced that Wednesday would be its last flight out of China until at least March 28.
Messonnier said the aggressive response is aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus into the U.S., allowing time to prepare and distribute diagnostic testing kits and develop an eventual vaccine. While the disease has spread rapidly in mainland China, its reach into the U.S. and other countries has been slower.
“What was different about this one outbreak is that it was caught so early,” Messonnier said. “We have this opportunity to intervene before it can spread around the world.”
Walke said those quarantined at Travis are not allowed to leave the base but “they’re not stuck in their room.”
“There are common spaces, there are kids
among these evacuees,” Walke said. “We have people on the staff working to put together activities. The mental health of these families is very important.”
Walke said families are asked to maintain a “social distance” with other evacuees of about 6 feet to reduce the possibility of spreading the virus, if present, among themselves. The disease, he added, is believed to be spread by respiratory “droplets” expelled by sneezing or coughing that reaches the nose, mouth or lungs of others.
The flight crew that brought the evacuees from China wore protective gear but otherwise are not subject to quarantine, Walke said. Air Force personnel at the base are not interacting with the quarantined evacuees.
The coronavirus is from the same family as the SARS and MERS viruses that caused outbreaks in
2003 and 2012. The SARS outbreak in 2003 infected 8,096 and killed 774, according to the World Health Organization. MERS has infected 2,494 since 2012, of which 858 have died, according to WHO.
Messonnier said the coronavirus appears to be fatal in about 2% of infections, but cautioned that information is still preliminary and it’s difficult to draw conclusions about the severity of the disease.
“What we know is this disease can be deadly,” Messonnier said. “We know death is possible.”
Dr. Robert Quigley, senior vice president and regional medical director of International SOS and MedAire, a major security and medical travel risk firm with experience in evacuation and quarantine protocols, said that the uncertainty around the coronavirus, its origin and its virulence is the main cause for concern.
“The 2019 novel coronavirus infection appears to be much more infectious than what we’ve seen with previous coronaviruses causing pandemics,” Quigley said Wednesday. “This coronavirus seems to be gathering strength over time. So although the severity of symptoms seems to be less, the overall impact may be as great, if not greater, as other global pandemics in the past despite the global efforts to contain it.”