Federal officials said the 195 Americans returning from the epicenter of the coronavirus in Wuhan, China, are not under quarantine but have all agreed to remain at March Air Reserve Base in California for further monitoring.
“The people on board cheered loudly when the plane touched down in Anchorage,” said Dr. Nancy Messonnier, Director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the coronavirus risk is “very low” at a press conference to discuss the return of the Americans aboard a plane chartered by the State Department from Wuhan on Wednesday morning.
“We think it is appropriate that our citizens who are in the epicenter of that outbreak in Wuhan be repatriated for their safety,” said Dr. Christopher Braden, deputy director of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases. “We do think that the risk for the general communities in the United States from this infection is very low.”
The State Department rushed the Americans home as the death toll from coronavirus reached 132, with more than 6,000 people infected in China. The CDC has confirmed five cases of coronavirus in four U.S. states.
[Read more: At least 110 under investigation in US for coronavirus]
The CDC said that passengers were given two pre-boarding screenings, performed by both Chinese and U.S. medical physicians, in Wuhan, and were monitored throughout the flight. A CDC quarantine station team met the plane in Anchorage, Alaska, and screened passengers before its final leg to California.
Baden said returning Americans would be monitored for three days in California, but when pressed, Rear Adm. Dr. Nancy Knight, the director of the CDC’s Division of Global Health Protection, confirmed the passengers could leave at their own will, as they are not being quarantined.
“They can leave, however, they are sitting in the middle of a military base,” Knight said. “Any discussion around departure would be just that.”
Baden later clarified that measures are in place to hold any passengers they believe could be a risk to the population.
“We can institute an individual quarantine for that person, and we will,” said Baden.
The CDC will actively monitor each passenger for 14 days, the suspected incubation period of the disease, with the help of state and local physicians.
Knight confirmed that children were aboard the plane, including a one-month-old passenger. One person was not allowed to board the plane in China after they registered symptoms of a “fever, cough, and other respiratory symptoms.”
On Thursday, President Trump said “all options are on the table” to battle the virus.
