A charter flight from Wuhan, China, carrying approximately 200 U.S. citizens, taxis to a stop at March Air Reserve Base in Riverside, Calif. Wednesday morning Jan. 29, 2020.
Will Lester | Inland Valley Daily Bulletin via Getty Images
U.S. health officials have quarantined 195 Americans evacuated from Wuhan, China, taking the rare step of issuing a mandatory order for the first time in more than 50 years to help contain an outbreak of a new coronavirus that’s spread to roughly 10,000 people across the globe.
“CDC under statutory authority of the HHS secretary has issued federal quarantine orders for all 195 passengers,” Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said on a conference call with reporters Friday. “While we recognize this is an unprecedented action, we are facing an unprecedented public health threat.”
The new coronavirus, which was discovered about a month ago, can spread before symptoms show, she said, citing a new report from the New England Journal of Medicine. The illness has quickly spread throughout mainland China, with 7,000 new cases confirmed over the last week and at least 213 deaths. World health officials previously said the virus is transmitted through human contact, in droplets released by coughing or sneezing and even by touching surfaces with germs.
“We are preparing as if this were the next pandemic but we are hopeful still that this is not and will not be the case,” she said. “This is a very serious public health situation and CDC and federal government has and will continue to take aggressive action to protect the public.”
The passengers will be quarantined at the March Air Reserve Base in Riverside County, California during the incubation period, or 14 days, she said. They arrived in the U.S. from Wuhan on Wednesday and were screened multiple times and monitored throughout the flight, health officials said.
Messonnier said Wednesday that the CDC has 20 staff on hand to monitor their health. If any of the passengers begin to exhibit symptoms, they will be moved to a hospital, she said. She said the goal of the quarantine is to prevent “as much as possible community spread” of the coronavirus.
“This is one of the tools in our toolbox to mitigate the potential impact of this novel virus on that United States,” she said. “We are preparing as if this were the next pandemic, but we are hopeful still that this is not and will not be the case.”
Messonnier said the respiratory disease can be carried through droplets or through sneezing and coughing, confirming what World Health Organization officials told reporters earlier this week.
The virus “has demonstrated the capacity to spread globally. This is a very serious public health situation and CDC and federal government has and will take aggressive action to protect the public, she said.
CDC officials said that they do not recommend the use of facemasks, adding the risk of the novel virus to the American public is still low. “Please do not let fear or panic guide your actions,” Messonnier said.
On Thursday, U.S. health officials confirmed nation’s first person-to-person transmission of the virus — the husband of a Chicago woman who brought the infection back from Wuhan, China, the epicenter of the outbreak. Public health officials also said they were monitoring 21 patients in Illinois for possible infections.
