Flights Carrying US Coronavirus Evacuees From China Land At Travis AFB
TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE (CBS13) — Evacuees from the part of China believed to be the heart of the coronavirus outbreak arrived at Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield early Wednesday morning.
"The goal of our public health response is to detect cases quickly," said Dr. Henry Walke with the Center for Disease Control.
The special flights came from the Hubei Province in China. One plane will remain at Travis, while the second plane will refuel and continue onto Southern California.
Dr. Henry Walke says there are 178 evacuees including children that are now under a 14 day quarantine at Travis AFB from China. He says one child had a fever but it is not known at this time if it's related to the #CoronavirusOutbreak pic.twitter.com/aFQMHhofBx
— Renee Santos (@RSantosTV) February 5, 2020
A total of 178 passengers will be quarantined for 14 days at the Travis AFB facility. The passengers range in age from under two to 65 years old. Each will undergo health assessments twice a day over the next two weeks.
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"If these evacuees don't develop any symptoms then they will be released and return hopefully back to their communities and families," Dr. Walke said.
Travis AFB was named one of the four bases that coronavirus evacuees would be sent to earlier this week.
In a press conference on Wednesday, a CDC official noted that the people under quarantine at Travis don't have coronavirus symptoms. Officials did say that one child had a fever, but it's not known at this time if it's related to coronavirus.
"It takes some time to collect the specimens send them away and then get the result back from CDC," Dr. Walke said.