Felicity Huffman may not have escaped servicing a prison sentence for her Varsity Blues scandal, but she and her oldest daughter recently tried to ward off the fatal coronavirus as it hits the U.S.
Huffman, 56, and 19-year-old Sophia were spotted arriving at John F. Kennedy Airport bundled up for the winter weather and wearing blue face masks as the coronavirus has spread to at least 12 countries since it was discovered in Wuhan, China. It has killed 56 people so far.
The Desperate Housewives actress – who was just released from a short 11 day prison sentence on October 25-can be seen pulling her suitcase alongside Sophia who became embroiled her mother’s legal drama last year.
Felicity Huffman (right), 56, and her oldest daughter Sophia Macy (left), 19, were seen arriving at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York, New York, wearing blue face masks as fears of the coronavirus spread
Sophia Macy (left) became collateral damage in Huffman’s (right) federal legal drama after the actress paid a proctor $15,000 to boost the teenager’s SAT scores
Huffman was slapped with a two week prison stay after previously paying a test proctor $15,000 to boost her daughters’ SAT scores.
Sophia was reportedly intent on attending The Julliard School and was flew out two days after her mother’s arrest for a final audition.
According to Huffman’s husband and Sophia’s father, William H. Macy, the top tier performing arts schools uninvited her from the process.
‘She flew to the school two days after her mom’s arrest for the final selections. When she landed, the school emailed her withdrawing their invitation to audition,’ Macy wrote in a letter to a federal judge in a plea for leniency in Huffman’s case.
After pleading guilty, Huffman (pictured) served 11 days of a two week prison sentence in California and was ordered to pay a $30,000 fine, as well as complete 250 hours of community service
Since the Varsity Blues scandal, the family has been working on rebuilding their once strong bond and going to therapy together to sort out their issues
Sophia Macy has begun to move on from the drama, having recently booked a gig acting on season two of Jordan Peele’s Twilight Zone on CBS. It’s unclear what role she’ll play or how many episodes she’ll be featured in.
‘[Sophia] called us from the airport in hysterics, begging us to “do something, please, please do something”,’ he added.
Macy stood by Huffman throughout the ordeal, noting that his wife’s relationship with her two daughters ‘exploded’ after the college admissions scandal went public.
Since the scandal, the family has been working on rebuilding their once strong bond and going to therapy together to sort out their issues.
Sophia appears to have made strides past the initial drama and following her parent’s footsteps into acting.
It was revealed in January that Sophia has landed a gig on season two of Jordan Peele’s Twilight Zone on CBS.
It’s unclear what role she will play and how many episodes she will be featured in.
Macy continues to act as Frank Gallagher in the critically acclaimed show Shameless, and the couple’s youngest daughter, Georgia, is set to attend Vassar University in in 2020.
Husband, William H. Macy (right), revealed that Huffman’s (left) relationship with her two daughters has ‘exploded’ since the college admissions scandal and the family is working to rebuild their bond
Huffman has begun to move on as well by completing a mandated 250-hours of community service work, and a $30,000 fine, as a part of her punishment.
Since November, she has been putting in time at The Teen Project, a center in Los Angeles which serves at risk homeless and sex trafficked women.
Huffman will spend a year completing the community service work as court proceedings continue to work through the 53 people charged, like actress Lori Loughlin, in the explosive case.
While Huffman has pleaded guilty to the allegations, Loughlin and her husband Mossimo Giannulli maintain their innocence as they face three charges and potentially 45 years in jail.
Loughlin may be resigning to stint in jail as reports say she hired a prison expert to help her learn the ropes in case she’s convicted.
News of the evacuation came as the number of confirmed coronavirus cases worldwide jumped to 1,396 on Saturday morning, including 42 fatalities. Patients are seen undergoing treatment at Wuhan Central Hospital
The new virus comes from a large family of what are known as coronaviruses, some causing nothing worse than a cold. It causes cold- and flu-like symptoms, including cough and fever and, in more severe case, shortness of breath. It can worsen to pneumonia, which can be fatal. Most of China’s provinces and cities activated a Level 1 public health alert, the highest in a four-tier system, the state-owned China Daily newspaper reported Saturday (pictured, medics at Wuhan Red Cross Hospital)
Meanwhile, health officials and several countries are rushing to get handle on the coronavirus as it continues to spread across the globe.
In North America, there are four confirmed cases: California, Washington, Chicago and Canada.
More than 2,000 cases of the virus have been confirmed by several governments worldwide as at least 56 people – most of them in China – have died.
Orange County Health Care Agency announced that a patient in California had tested positive for novel coronavirus.
The agency said the patient had traveled from Wuhan and reached out to the health care agency prior to being diagnosed. They were given guidance to avoiding exposing the public to the virus while waiting for test results.
‘The individual has now been transported to a local hospital and is in isolation in good condition,’ added the agency who did not identify the patient.
Canada confirmed its first case Saturday, as a man in his 50s was quarantined in Toronto, while two cases have been confirmed in the United States – one in Chicago and another in Snohomish County, Washington.
News of the virus spreading into North America comes as the United States government warns it won’t have enough seats on a rescue plane to evacuate all US citizens from the Chinese city of Wuhan amid a deadly outbreak of coronavirus – and the jet won’t even arrive for two days.
The US consulate is reaching out to all Americans registered as living in Wuhan – considered to be the epicenter of the deadly outbreak – to offer them a seat on a charter flight scheduled for Tuesday.
A source familiar with the chartered evacuation flight told CNN that roughly 1,000 Americans live in Wuhan, and those who choose to leave will be forced to pay for their spot on the Boeing 767 jet, which carries around 230 people.
The State Department released a statement late on Saturday which read: ‘The Department of State is making arrangements to relocate its personnel stationed at the US Consulate General in Wuhan to the United States.
‘We anticipate that there will be limited capacity to transport private US citizens on a reimbursable basis on a single flight leaving Wuhan Tianhe International Airport on January 28, 2020 and proceeding directly to San Francisco.’
Since space is limited, the government says that ‘priority will be given to individuals at greater risk from coronavirus.’
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said it is involved in the efforts to help Americans leave Wuhan.
‘Department of State has the lead for the safe and expedient ordered departure of all US citizens from Wuhan, China,’ CDC spokeswoman Kristen Nordlund told CNN.
‘CDC is aware and coordinating in the planning.’
Horrifying videos posted to social media show chaos at hospitals and doctors collapsing on the floor in Wuhan as Chinese authorities struggle to gain control of the epidemic.
Washington was given approval for the operation from China’s Foreign Ministry and other government agencies following negotiations in recent days.
The US also plans to temporarily shut its Wuhan consulate, it said.
Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto, Canada, said it is ‘caring for a patient who has a confirmed case of the novel coronavirus that originated in Wuhan, China.’
Officials said the man is his 50s and recently flew from Wuhan, China to Guangzhou, China and then on to Toronto on January 23.
‘He really wasn’t in Toronto very long. He wasn’t feeling well. I think he was at home and the people that live with him are in self isolation,’ said Dr. Barbara Yaffe, Ontario’s Associated Chief Medical Officer.
Meanwhile, a suburban Chicago hospital is currently treating a 60-year-old woman who is a confirmed carrier of the virus after she returned from Wuhan.
The unidentified patient is currently in isolation at St. Alexius Medical Center in Hoffman Estates, Illinois.
It came days after America’s first confirmed case – a Washington man in his 30s who lives in Snohomish County, who has been quarantined at Providence Regional Medical Center in Everett, outside of Seattle.
Cities across America are on high alert amid the escalating coronavirus crisis as 63 people in 22 states are suspected to have contracted the deadly strain.
The outbreak of the new virus originated in China, where it has infected more than 1,975 people and killed 56, and has spread worldwide.
Australia and Malaysia reported their first cases Saturday – four each – and Japan, its third. France confirmed three cases Friday, the first in Europe.
In Canada, while the case has been confirmed by a test in Toronto, officials said it has yet to complete separate testing by the federal government’s National Collaborating Centre for Infectious Diseases in Winnipeg. The illness will officially be fully confirmed once it completes that testing.
Dr. David Williams, Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health, said they are 95% sure it is the virus.
‘This is the first presumptive confirmed case,’ said Williams.
‘While we are convinced our tests do demonstrate positivity there is confirmation at the national medical laboratory in Winnipeg and once that is done is is a fully confirmed case.’
The man is now in stable condition in isolation. He was admitted to hospital a day after his flight to Toronto.
As of Saturday evening, there are three confirmed cases and 64 suspected cases of coronavirus in the United States and Canada
More than 1,300 people have been infected globally with the virus traced to a seafood market in the central city of Wuhan that was illegally selling wildlife
It appears that all of the patients currently awaiting test results after showing symptoms consistent with the virus – such as fever, cough and runny nose – had either visited Wuhan recently or were in contact with someone who visited the city.
Those patients are believed to have all been isolated either in hospitals or in their homes to reduce the risk of exposing others.
US health officials warned on Friday that the flu or other respiratory illnesses could complicate efforts to identify additional cases.
‘We’re really working to understand the full spectrum of the illness with this coronavirus,’ Dr Nancy Messonnier, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases Messonnier, said at a briefing.
‘The problem with this time of year is it’s cold and flu season and there are lots of cold and respiratory infections circulating.’
The CDC has recommended that anyone with symptoms contact a health-care provider before seeking treatment so the appropriate precautionary measures can be put in place.
The agency is trying to expedite screenings by providing up tests to state health officials.
It currently takes the CDC about four to six hours to make a diagnosis once a sample arrives at its lab.
Two people from Minnesota and three people from Michigan are currently being tested. Also being monitored are two college students, one from Texas A&M University and another from Tennessee Tech University.
The US government is planning to evacuate 1,000 American citizens from the coronavirus-stricken Chinese city of Wuhan. Photos from inside the intensive care unit at Zhongnan Hospital in Wuhan show medical workers caring for critically-ill patients this week (above)
Medical staff members wearing protective clothing to help stop the spread of a deadly virus which began in the city, walk at the Wuhan Red Cross Hospital in China
Public health entry screenings are currently taking place Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Chicago O’Hare International Airport, Los Angeles International Airport, John F Kennedy International Airport in New York and San Francisco International Airport.
The screening begins with a survey to determine whether a traveler shows possible coronavirus symptoms and whether they visited the meat or seafood markets in Wuhan that have been tied to the outbreak.
If they appear to have any symptoms associated with coronavirus, travelers are taken to on-site triage for further examination and a temperature check.
The State Department issued its highest travel warning for Wuhan on Thursday, advising Americans to not travel to the region.
The level 4 warning puts the city on par with countries such as Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Mali, North Korea, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria, Venezuela and Yemen.
Some 57 million people across 15 Chinese cities are now on lockdown as officials work to slow the virus’ rapid spread.
The coronavirus strain, known as 2019-nCov, is believed to have emerged from illegally-traded wildlife at a seafood market in Wuhan, a city 700 miles south of the capital of Beijing.
Dramatic video showed people collapsing on sidewalks in Wuhan, the Chinese city where the outbreak originated
While preliminary research suggests the virus was passed to humans from snakes, Chinese health officials reported this week that some cases have been caused by human-to-human transmission increasing the risk of it spreading.
Experts don’t yet know how quickly the disease can spread from person-to-person, but a World Health Organisation (WHO) official has said it is transmitted faster than previously thought.
‘We are now seeing second and third generation spread,’ Dr David Heymann, the chairperson of a WHO committee gathering data on the virus, said Thursday.
Third generation means that someone who became infected after handling animals at the market in Wuhan, China, could transmit the virus to someone else, who then passes it to a third person.
Heymann said the virus initially appeared to spread only by very close contact that would typically occur within a family, such as hugging, kissing or sharing eating utensils.
He said new evidence suggests more distant contact could spread the virus, such as if an infected person were to sneeze or cough near someone else’s face.
Heymann noted that there is no evidence indicated that the virus is airborne and could spread across a room.
Last week, US officials began funneling all passengers arriving in the US from Wuhan on direct or connecting flights through five major airports – including O’Hare (pictured) to ensure that they are screened
People waiting for passengers wear masks at Pearson airport arrivals, shortly after Toronto Public Health received notification of Canada’s first presumptive confirmed case of coronavirus, in Toronto