THOUSANDS across America are in voluntary self-quarantine after returning from coronavirus-hit China, health officials reveal
- Estimated 7,000 people returned to San Francisco from China in recent weeks
- Returnees have shown no signs of having contracted the virus and no fever
- Health experts have advised 14 days self-quarantine with limited contact
- Reports say there are 575 ‘medium risk’ returnees in New York, 27 people in self-quarantine in Iowa and another 10 in North Dakota
Thousands of Americans who have returned from China are being asked to self-quarantine for two weeks as a precaution.
US citizens who have recently returned from China, where the coronavirus outbreak began, have been asked to shut themselves away for 14 days and to limit contact with others.
The returnees have shown no signs of having contracted the virus, formally known as COVID-19, and haven’t developed a fever or respiratory complications.
Globally, the coronavirus epidemic has killed at least 2,247 people and infected more than 76,700, and has spread to at least two dozen countries.
Reports estimate that 7,000 people have returned to just one US state from the People’s Republic in February.
A plane which evacuated 177 American citizens from Wuhan is seen arriving at Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield on February 5
A pedestrian passes the main gate at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio on 5 February. Several planes carrying US citizens fleeing the virus zone in Wuhan China will arrive at Air Force bases including Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, where they will be quarantined for up to 14 days, according to the CDC
‘The travelers have all been very cooperative,’ Dr. Sherlita Amler, the health commissioner for New York’s Westchester County, told NBC.
‘They don’t want to expose their friends and their family. They just want to be home and safe.’
NBC News reported that there are 575 ‘medium risk’ returnees in New York, 27 people in self-quarantine in Iowa and another 10 in North Dakota.
Washington state reported 745 individuals who have been asked to avoid the outside. Georgia identified 200.
Michigan reported that 300 people had been referred for monitoring.
In Virginia, 138 residents ‘were asked to remain at home and practice social distancing’, according to Dr. Lilian Peake, the state epidemiologist.
Other states opted out of sharing the number of travelers they were keeping an eye on.
Health officials monitored the 11 airports across the states where flights from China were rerouted in order to get an idea of possible cases.
The novel coronavirus has killed at least 2,247 people and infected more than 76,700 globally
Passengers arrive at LAX from Shanghai, China, after a positive case of the coronavirus was announced in the Orange County suburb of Los Angeles in January
Coronavirus patients recuperate in a temporary hospital converted in Wuhan on February 18
The San Francisco Chronicle reported that thousands of travellers flying into California in February have been told to ‘stay home’ and ‘limit interactions with others as much as possible’.
The advice was not limited to those returning from the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak, but to anyone who had visited mainland China.
‘I felt more relieved day by day, minute by minute, when I boarded the plane,’ Jeffrey Ho, who arrived in San Francisco after visiting Hubei province, told the San Francisco Chronicle.
‘I think it was a good decision for keeping the general population of the US safe. … It’s safe to try to keep people quarantined just to make sure they don’t cause an outbreak in San Francisco or something.’
Overnight, China’s National Health Commission reported 889 new cases. The figure more than doubles the toll from the day before, which was a record low in weeks.
Hubei, the hard-hit central province where the virus emerged late last year, said Friday that 271 cases were reported by its prisons on Thursday, including 220 that had previously not been known to provincial authorities.