WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — None of the 195 US citizens evacuated on a chartered flight from the Chinese city at the epicenter of a deadly virus outbreak have shown symptoms of infection, a senior US health official said Wednesday.
They have been assigned quarters at a military base in California where they will remain in isolation on a voluntary basis for 72 hours, said Nancy Messonnier of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
“All of the 195 has agreed to remain on base voluntarily,” she told reporters.
“CDC has now begun the second stage of further screening and information gathering from the passengers. The passengers will be offered testing as part of this thorough risk assessment and samples will be sent to the CDC.”
The figure of 195 is slightly lower than earlier passenger counts provided by officials, which ranged up to 210.
Commenting on the 72-hour period, she said: “We said up to three days because we thought that gave us a little room to make sure that we had enough time to do all the things that you needed to do.”
She added they were willing and eager to cooperate.
The US has so far confirmed five positive cases of the 2019 Novel Coronavirus with another 95 under investigation.
© Agence France-Presse
