The Centers for Disease Control announced preparation for three sites in Texas, California, and Nebraska as Americans return home from Wuhan, China, the center of the coronavirus outbreak.
“This week, several planes carrying passengers from Wuhan China will arrive in three states,” read a Wednesday statement from the CDC. “These locations are Travis Air Force Base in Sacramento, CA, Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego, CA, Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, TX, and Eppley Airfield in Omaha, NE.”
The statement confirms that all passengers will be screened before and after takeoff from Wuhan by medical officials and again upon landing at their destinations.
Questions about CDC protocol arose at a press conference for a plane returning from Wuhan with 195 Americans aboard last week in Riverside County, California. Reporters pressed the director of the CDC’s Division of Global Health Protection Rear Adm. Dr. Nancy Knight after she announced returning passengers would be allowed to leave March Air Reserve Base if they wished. Later, it was announced that all 195 passengers had agreed to quarantine themselves voluntarily.
The passengers returning on the three flights this week “will be issued quarantine orders upon arrival at their designated quarantine location” intended to protect the health of family, friends, and the larger communities. The CDC quarantine will last 14 days, the believed incubation period, and then passengers will be able to leave if they are not showing symptoms.
“We continue to believe the immediate risk of coronavirus exposure to the general public is low, however, CDC is undertaking these measures to help keep that risk low,” the statement added.
The coronavirus has killed more than 500 people and infected tens of thousands globally as the epidemic continues to spread. Officials in China are reportedly cremating more than 100 bodies a day, disputing official numbers released by the Chinese government.
