Coronavirus: 2nd plane lands in US carrying evacuees from China amid outbreak

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Wednesday, February 5, 2020
Coronavirus: 2nd plane lands in US carrying evacuees from China amid outbreak
More evacuees from China have arrived in the United States amid the deadly coronavirus outbreak.

SOLANO COUNTY, Calif. -- More evacuees from China have arrived in the United States amid the deadly coronavirus outbreak.

The two planes, carrying hundreds of Americans, landed at Travis Air Force base near Sacramento, California, on Wednesday morning.

They are the second wave of Americans rushed out of Wuhan, China, the epicenter of an outbreak that has infected more than 24,500 people globally and killed more than 490.

The evacuees will be screened by Center for Disease Control medical personnel upon arrival and some will be moved to a quarantine site on the base, where they will reside for a federally mandated 14-day quarantine in the base. More will fly to Miramar Marine Corps Air Station in San Diego for quarantine.

Sam Roth, from Wisconsin, said his wife and two young daughters were visiting family in Wuhan and had just arrived in the states. He said this has been a grueling experience for this family.

"They arrived at the airport (in China) at 3 p.m. Tuesday, and they did not take off until more than 24 hours later, and that's an airport with no shops open. It was just waiting and getting their temperature taken. It was really exhausting for my wife and my daughters," he said.

Last week, 195 Americans arrived at March Air Reserve Base in Riverside County, where they remain in isolation. A child from that group has since developed a fever and was rushed to the hospital Monday to be tested.

The CDC has confirmed 11 coronavirus cases in the United States, and two were spread via human-to-human transmission.

Health officials around the world are scrambling to show down the spread of the flu-like virus. In Japan, for example, nearly 3,000 passengers remain quarantined on a cruise ship off the country's after a passenger tested positive for coronavirus.