A federal judge blocked a Trump administration plan to send 30 to 50 American coronavirus patients to a Southern California town after local officials complained they were blindsided by the decision.
The patients had been scheduled to arrive at a shuttered state facility in Costa Mesa on Sunday under a US Department of Health and Human Services and Centers for Disease Control plan that was blocked an by an injunction granted after concerns were raised.
Costa Mesa Mayor Katrina Foley and other officials from surrounding Orange County are demanding more details on how the local community would be protected from the deadly outbreak.
Officials in the city of Costa Mesa, California, hold a press conference after learning the Trump administration was planning to send 30 to 50 American coronavirus patients to a Southern California town after local officials complained they were blindsided by the decision
Coronavirus patients had been scheduled to arrive at Fairview Developmental Center, a shuttered California state facility in Costa Mesa on Sunday under a US Department of Health and Human Services and Centers for Disease Control plan that was blocked an by an injunction
Officials from Costa Mesa and surrounding Orange County are demanding more details on how the local community would be protected from the deadly outbreak if patients were housed at one of the residential facilities (pictured) at the Fairview Developmental Center
William Hart, who lives in Santa Ana near Costa Mesa, where up to 50 coronavirus patients were to be relocated under a federal plan, said he and his wife were ‘shocked to know this is happening’
Residents in Costa Mesa and surrounding Ocean County appear holding signs of protest as local officials expressed concerns about the federal plan to relocate coronavirus patients to a shuttered state facility in their area
The judge’s order stopped the federal plan, which would have relocated patients to the city of 110,000 residents from Travis Air Force Base, where they were evacuated to from the coronavirus-hit Diamond Empress cruise ship in Japan.
Three passengers have died and fears are mounting for hundreds of tourists left aboard.
‘We were shocked to know this is happening. My wife’s been crying all day,’ William Hart, who lives in nearby Santa Ana told KCBS.
U.S. District Judge Josephine L. Stanton has scheduled a hearing for Monday to address the issue brewing in Costa Mesa.
City officials quickly sought court intervention after learning from the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services that US officials planned to start moving patients to the shuttered Fairview Developmental Center.
They said in court documents that local officials were not included in the planning effort and wanted to know why the state facility was chosen for the continued quarantine.
Fairview, a now-closed 118-acre property, originally opened in 1959 and housed about 2,700 people with developmental disabilities on a sprawling campus with 60 buildings.
A judge’s order stopped a federal plan to relocate patients to Costa Mesa from Travis Air Force Base (pictured), where they were evacuated to from the coronavirus-hit Diamond Empress cruise ship in Japan
Three passengers have died and fears are mounting for hundreds of tourists left aboard
An image of the coronavirus-hit Diamond Princess cruise ship at Yokohama Port near Tokyo, Japan, shows medical personnel and the quarantine measures that have been taken to seal off the disease-infested vessel
Officials say they want to know how the facility is considered suitable for the quarantine and what kinds of safeguards would be in place to prevent the possible transmission of the virus that has spread worldwide.
Globally, the virus has infected nearly 80,000 people, most in China, and more than 2,300 have died, also mostly in China. There are at least 35 confirmed cases in the US.
Foley said Costa Mesa ‘has not been part of any of the process that led to the consideration of the site, and it would be unfair to not include us in this kind of significant decision that has great impact on our community,’ reports the Orange County Register.
Costa Mesa Mayor Katrina Foley says the city ‘has not been part of any of the process that led to the consideration of the site, and it would be unfair to not include us in this kind of significant decision that has great impact on our community’
The California Health and Human Services Agency said in a statement Saturday that it was working with federal authorities to find a place for people who were evacuated from a quarantined cruise ship in Japan and taken to Travis Air Force Base in Northern California.
Anyone who tested positive for the virus cannot stay at the base and must be sent either to the hospital or if they’re not sick enough, isolated until the infection has cleared.
The Fairview center in Costa Mesa had been considered as a place to send them.
‘If Fairview were chosen, the federal government would be responsible for providing health care – easing the burden on our hospitals during flu season – and for providing robust security to ensure the public safety and public health of the surrounding community,’ the state’s statement said.
A state lawmaker whose district includes Costa Mesa said he feared the virus could travel through the facility’s air vents.
‘The coronavirus patients should be treated humanely and with the best medical care available. But the first priority must be to contain the virus and make sure it doesn’t jump into the local population,’ Republican state Sen. John Moorlach said.