(Reuters) – Another 350 Americans airlifted from the epicenter of China’s fast-spreading coronavirus outbreak were placed under quarantine at two military bases in California on Wednesday, as the number of confirmed U.S. cases of the disease rose to 12.
The travelers aboard two State Department-chartered cargo jets were met by personnel from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for immediate screening, and are to remain under mandatory quarantine for 14 days, the incubation period of the virus.
The latest evacuees, together with 195 Americans flown out of Wuhan, China, a week ago by the U.S. government, brings to nearly 400 the number people subject so far to the CDC’s first public health quarantine in 50 years. Wuhan, in China’s Hubei province, is the epicenter of the disease.
The two planes in Wednesday’s airlift arrived at Travis Air Force Base in northern California, where 178 passengers from one plane disembarked to begin two weeks of round-the-clock health screening while barred from contact with the general public.
None of the group showed signs of disease, except for a small child who developed a fever during the flight and was taken to a nearby hospital with its mother for further testing and medical treatment in isolation, officials said. The other evacuees at Travis will be housed in a hotel on base.
After refueling, the second evacuation plane flew on to Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, near San Diego, where about 170 passengers were placed under quarantine at two housing sites there.
‘CRITICAL TIME PERIOD’
“Because these individuals were in Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak, where there is intense