A group of Americans, including children, evacuated from the Wuhan region of China, the epicenter of the fast-spreading coronavirus outbreak, will remain at March Air Reserve Base in Riverside County for at least three days, officials said Wednesday.

In a news conference Wednesday morning, Chris Braden, a deputy director at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the 195 passengers who arrived at the base shortly after 8 a.m. will be evaluated over the course of three days before they may go on to their next destination. Some passengers, he said, may choose to stay for the full, two-week incubation period. Those who choose to leave after three days will be monitored by their local and state health officials for the remaining two-week period, he added.

Officials initially said there were 201 passengers, but the CDC said later that number included the six members of the plane’s crew.

A charter flight from Wuhan, China, carrying approximately 200 U.S. citizens, taxis to a stop at March Air Reserve Base in Riverside, Calif., Wednesday morning Jan. 29, 2020. The flight originated from the area where the coronavirus outbreak started. All the passengers will be held in quarantine for an unknown duration. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)

A team in white biohazard suits wait near a charter flight from Wuhan, China, carrying approximately 200 U.S. citizens, after landing at March Air Reserve Base in Riverside, Calif., Wednesday morning Jan. 29, 2020. The flight originated from the area where the coronavirus outbreak started. All the passengers will be held in quarantine for an unknown duration. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)

Sound The gallery will resume in seconds

A bus carrying some of the approximately 200 U.S. citizens, from Wuhan, China, heads to an unknown location after landing at March Air Reserve Base in Riverside, Calif., Wednesday morning Jan. 29, 2020. The flight originated from the area where the coronavirus outbreak started. All the passengers will be held in quarantine for an unknown duration. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)

A charter flight from Wuhan, China, carrying approximately 200 U.S. citizens, lands at March Air Reserve Base in Riverside, Calif. Wednesday morning Jan. 29, 2020. The flight originated from the area where the coronavirus outbreak started. All the passengers will be held in quarantine for an unknown duration. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)

A team in white biohazard suits unload luggage off a charter flight from Wuhan, China, carrying approximately 200 U.S. citizens, after landing at March Air Reserve Base in Riverside, Calif. Wednesday morning Jan. 29, 2020. The flight originated from the area where the coronavirus outbreak started. All the passengers will be held in quarantine for an unknown duration. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)



A team in white biohazard suits watch as some of the approximately 200 passengers walk to waiting buses upon arriving on a charter flight from Wuhan, China, after landing at March Air Reserve Base in Riverside, Calif. Wednesday morning Jan. 29, 2020. The flight originated from the area where the coronavirus outbreak started. All the passengers will be held in quarantine for an unknown duration. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)

A team in white biohazard suits watch as some of the approximately 200 passengers walk to waiting buses upon arriving on a charter flight from Wuhan, China, after landing at March Air Reserve Base in Riverside, Calif., Wednesday morning Jan. 29, 2020. The flight originated from the area where the coronavirus outbreak started. All the passengers will be held in quarantine for an unknown duration. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)

Members of the media wait for a 747 charter jet to arrive at March Air Reserve Base in Riverside County carrying U.S. citizens from Wuhan, China, where the coronavirus outbreak originated, Jan. 29, 2020. (Photo by Will Lester, SCNG)

A charter flight from Wuhan, China, carrying approximately 200 U.S. citizens, lands at March Air Reserve Base in Riverside Wednesday morning Jan. 29, 2020. The flight originated from the area where the coronavirus outbreak started. All the passengers will be held in quarantine for an unknown duration. (Courtesy of Dan Cupido)

A charter flight from Wuhan, China, carrying approximately 200 U.S. citizens, lands at March Air Reserve Base in Riverside Wednesday morning Jan. 29, 2020. The flight originated from the area where the coronavirus outbreak started. All the passengers will be held in quarantine for an unknown duration. (Courtesy of Dan Cupido)



A charter flight from Wuhan, China, carrying approximately 200 U.S. citizens, lands at March Air Reserve Base in Riverside Wednesday morning Jan. 29, 2020. The flight originated from the area where the coronavirus outbreak started. All the passengers will be held in quarantine for an unknown duration. (Courtesy of Dan Cupido)

While the passengers are not under a federal quarantine, Braden said, the passengers have expressed their willingness to stay on base for the 72-hour observation period.

“I can just tell you they were very happy to be here and there was no indication they wanted to leave right away,” Braden told reporters Wednesday. “They wanted to know their status.”

The U.S. government-chartered flight touched down in Riverside County at 8:11 a.m., following a brief stop for refueling in Anchorage, Alaska. Originally bound for Ontario International Airport, the flight was redirected late Tuesday.

The plane has landed. pic.twitter.com/IJxqDaKSGv — Sandra Emerson (@ReporterSandraE) January 29, 2020

Officials in Alaska said all 195 passengers passed health screenings. One person with a fever in Wuhan did not board the plane for the U.S., Braden said.

The State Department said 240 passengers would be airlifted out of Wuhan, but there were fewer diplomats and their families. The flight was open to other American citizens and their families, according to Rear Admiral Dr. Nancy Knight, director of the Division of Global Health Protection at the CDC.

MAP: Tracking the coronavirus in real time

Passengers, including children whose ages ranged from 1 month to teens, went through two screenings in China and were monitored during the flight, officials said. They were screened again in Alaska during the fueling stop and approved to continue to March ARB.

Minutes after the plane landed at the base Wednesday morning, three buses approached and about 10 people wearing white biohazard suits funneled out near the nose of the plane. Passengers could be seen getting off the plane around 9:30 a.m.

At the news conference, Knight said the passengers were checked at the base for signs of coronavirus, including fever, cough and other respiratory symptoms. Passengers also were asked if they had been in close contact with anyone with the virus in China.

A CDC team will continue to check passengers for symptoms, including temperature, every 12 hours over the next three days, Knight said. Meanwhile, the Riverside University Health System medical center in Moreno Valley has provided a mobile health care unit on-site, near the facility where the individuals are being housed, should passengers show symptoms of the virus. The mobile unit also would be available for other medical needs, Knight said.

In an attempt to assuage concerns that the passengers may leave before the end of the observation period, Braden said officials could quarantine an individual if they are at risk of spreading the illness.

“If we think it’s risky then we have tools to protect the public and we will use them,” he said.

In a statement early Wednesday, Rep. Mark Takano, D-Riverside, said he had received a full briefing from the CDC and federal Department of Health and Human Services about the Wuhan flight and plans for repatriating the passengers in Riverside County.

“Members of our community should be aware that strict precautions are being taken to protect public health and to ensure that passengers traveling from China and service members and employees at March Air Reserve Base are safe,” he said.

Takano’s statement came a day after he and other members of the Inland Empire and San Gabriel Valley congressional delegations signed a letter making clear their frustrations over what they said was a lack of information about the airlift from Wuhan.

In a statement early Wednesday, one of those delegates, Rep. Norma Torres, D-Pomona, said she was glad the flight had landed safely but that she intended to press for information.

“In a flurry of mixed messages, incomplete information, and extremely short notice, the federal government left residents across the Inland Empire alarmed that a plane carrying coronavirus was about to land in the heart of our community,” she said. “It is entirely predictable that news like this would raise concerns – it’s entirely inexcusable that the federal government did not properly prepare for this reaction, did not adequately notify officials, and did not inform the public in a timely way.”

Riverside County officials, meanwhile, worked to put the public’s mind at ease.

“The risk to the public remains low and we plan to keep it that way,” Cameron Kaiser, county public health officer, told reporters Wednesday morning.

In the hours of coordination and calls Tuesday evening preparing for the landing, Kaiser said one thing became clear: “We’ve got a good perimeter out there to make sure that public and those individuals stay safe. We have an appropriate plan in place for dealing with the situation that we have at hand and we have good people on the ground actually implementing that plan.”

In an interview after the news conference, Kaiser said health officials established the 14-day incubation period based on what they know about treating coronaviruses in general.

“We believe if we use 14 days as an upward bound, that will safely catch anybody who is likely to manifest symptoms during that time,” he said. “We have no reliable evidence that suggests that people who are asymptomatic can spread the disease.”

By midday, the county’s Emergency Management Department set up a dedicated phone line to answer questions about coronavirus: 951-358-5134.

Throughout the day Tuesday, San Bernardino County health officials and ONT had been preparing for the flight’s arrival there. Passengers were to be screened and observed at the airport, which is a designated repatriation center. Late in the evening, however, San Bernardino County officials announced the plane would be diverted to March ARB.

Braden said the situation has been rapidly changing, but the passengers’ comfort was the most important factor when deciding to redirect the flight to Riverside County.

“They could be at the base for up to two weeks, so we think that the base is probably the most comfortable accommodation we could find for them,” he said.

The U.S. government chartered the plane to fly Americans from the U.S. Consulate in Wuhan. The Chinese government has cut off access to Wuhan and 16 other cities in Hubei province to prevent people from leaving and spreading the virus further. In addition to the United States, countries including Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and Britain have also planned evacuations.

The number of confirmed cases of coronavirus in China has jumped to 5,974, according to the government there. At least 130 people have died from the respiratory illness — which belongs to the same family as the virus that causes severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS. In the 2002-2003 SARS outbreak, 5,327 people were diagnosed with the virus.

Since the new virus surfaced in December, there have been no deaths outside of China, but more than 80 cases of infection have been reported in other countries, including five in the U.S., including one each in Los Angeles and Orange counties. Chinese authorities have quarantined major cities in the province, including Wuhan, to try to stop the spread, affecting some 56 million people.

The virus is believed to have come from a wholesale market where vendors legally sold live animals from stalls in close quarters with hundreds of others. Nearly two decades ago, SARS had a similar origin story, jumping from bats to Asian palm civets, and then to humans involved in the wildlife trade.

Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that circulate mostly among animals, including camels, cats and bats. Common symptoms in an infected human include a fever, cough and shortness of breath or difficulty breathing. Common symptoms in an infected person include a fever, cough and shortness of breath or difficulty breathing.

“If you get sick right now it is far more likely to be the flu than the coronavirus, even if you have been to China,” Kaiser said, adding that the region is in the middle of one of the worst flu seasons in the past several years.

“Do everything that you normally would to protect yourself,” he said. “Stay home if you’re sick. Don’t be around people who are sick. Wash your hands. Get your flu shot so I don’t have to worry about you. That would put you in good stead for dealing with this. If have symptoms like this, but haven’t been to China you don’t have the coronavirus.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Plane arrives from Wuhan, now we put our plan into action to secure a safe, healthy outcome for all. #rivconow #ruhealth #coronaravirus pic.twitter.com/irL4DmCQj3 — Dr. Cameron Kaiser (@RivCoDoc) January 29, 2020

HEALTH TIPS

Though the U.S. has confirmed only a handful of coronavirus cases, local and federal health officials say there are a number of steps one can take to protect one’s health, as with any virus, especially during flu season:

• Wash hands with soap and water.• Avoid touching eyes, nose or mouth with unwashed hands.• Avoid close contact with anyone who is sick.

Anyone exhibiting respiratory symptoms like fever and cough should stay away from work and school, and other people in general, to avoid spreading illness.