The U.S. government has ordered a 14-day quarantine for the 195 passengers that were rushed out of Wuhan, China, to escape the spread of the coronavirus.
This is the first such decision to quarantine in the more than 50 years that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has had such authorities. Officials said that it was the best way to keep people living in the U.S. from getting infected.
“We would rather be remembered for overreacting than under-reacting,” Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said on a call with reporters Friday. The passengers were flown to a California military base on Wednesday and initially told they would face a delay of at least 72 hours.
The decision came as more than 9,800 people in China have been infected with the coronavirus and more than 200 have died. Officials are particularity concerned after a study published Friday in the Lancet showing that many people who have the virus aren’t showing symptoms at all. That means the number of cases in China could be 10 times higher than estimated, and those people risk transmitting the virus to other people who would experience far more severe symptoms.
The passengers had been monitored before, during, and after they were flown to the U.S. They had been staying at the base voluntarily, though one tried to leave on Wednesday and was quarantined. Officials declined to provide more details about that person during Friday’s press call.
Five people in the U.S. were infected with coronavirus after traveling to Wuhan, and a sixth got the infection from spouse. The U.S. told people not to travel to China at all after the World Health Organization declared a public health emergency over the virus on Thursday.
