Four new evacuees from China at Travis AFB show signs of coronavirus and are hospitalized

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Tribune News Service) — Four evacuees flown out of China’s coronavirus hot zone were hospitalized with possible symptoms of the virus after landing at Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield early Friday, federal health officials said.

The 201-passenger flight was headed from Wuhan, China, to Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, with a stop at the Solano County base after 3 a.m. Friday, Jason McDonald, a spokesman at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Friday afternoon.

All 201 passengers were screened for viral symptoms at Travis where the four showed signs of the virus. A child was hospitalized with a fever Wednesday.

They are now isolated at an area hospital, McDonald said. Forty-nine others stayed behind at Travis where they joined nearly 180 other evacuees at Travis’ Westwind Inn, the on-base hotel housing them for a federally imposed 14-day quarantine period.

An earlier plane load of 178 evacuees – mostly diplomatic workers and their families – arrived at Travis in the pre-dawn hours Wednesday. A child who developed a fever aboard the Wednesday flight remains hospitalized in isolation Friday, McDonald said, though it remained unknown whether the child was infected with the coronavirus.

Also on Friday, another five people remain isolated at two San Diego hospitals after chartered flights from Wuhan to Marine Corps Air Station Miramar on Wednesday and Friday. Four people aboard the Wednesday flight to the Marine Corps base near San Diego are being cared for at UC San Diego Health Center; a fifth was taken to Rady Children’s Hospital. None has been confirmed infected by the virus, health officials said.

A flight that arrived mid-morning at Miramar carried 67 passengers who were met by personnel from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Health and Human Services Department, a CDC spokesman told San Diego television station KNSD-TV.

California Department of Public Health officials said 16 laboratories including the state’s viral disease lab in Richmond will soon be ready to test for the virus.

The Richmond lab expects to conduct testing by Feb. 12; the remaining labs are expected to conduct tests in the next couple of weeks, said state public health officials.

©2020 The Sacramento Bee (Sacramento, Calif.)

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