A child under federal quarantine has been hospitalized and another traveler from China has arrived at March Air Reserve Base and been placed in isolation, Riverside County officials announced Tuesday, Feb. 4.
The child was among the group of 195 Americans who were placed under a 14-day federal quarantine at the base after being evacuated last week from an area of China where a fast-moving new coronavirus originated.
Jose Arballo Jr., a county public health spokesman, said the child’s fever was reported Monday night and health officials decided it was best to take the child to the hospital for testing and close observation.
The child and a parent were taken by ambulance to Riverside University Health System-Medical Center “out of an abundance of caution,” the county said in a news release. The child’s testing samples will be submitted to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to the county, and results are expected later this week.
No confirmed cases of the new virus have been reported in Riverside or San Bernardino counties, but two such cases have been confirmed in Orange and Los Angeles counties. Orange County officials said the patient there was released from the hospital Saturday, Feb. 1, and is in good condition but remains in isolation. Los Angeles County did not disclose any details of the patient there.
The child’s age, gender and other identifying information are being kept confidential, Arballo said.
The medical staff who transported the minor took the same precautions being taken by staff at the mobile health clinic at the base, Arballo said.
“They have a pretty standard list of things that are part of the safety gear,” he said.
Meanwhile, a traveler who arrived Monday at Los Angeles International Airport on a flight from China has been placed under federal quarantine and transferred to March ARB. The passenger’s quarantine order expires Thursday, Feb. 6.
According to Riverside County health officials, that person has no symptoms of the coronavirus but was transferred to the base because of their travel history. The passenger is isolated from the larger group quarantined last week.
Evacuation flights out of Wuhan, China, continued Tuesday as the list of countries urging its citizens to leave the virus-stricken region grew.
A flight-tracking website indicated two flights from Wuhan, the center of the coronavirus outbreak, are expected to arrive at March ARB early Wednesday morning, but neither county nor federal officials could confirm details of the flights.
Rep. Mark Takano‘s office said the flights would land elsewhere.
The base is prepared to accommodate additional travelers from China, but as of Tuesday afternoon local officials had no information about a flight from Wuhan, Arballo said.
The large group of Americans currently under quarantine at March ARB arrived Wednesday, Jan. 29, after their plane made a brief stop in Anchorage, Alaska for refueling. The evacuees were initially bound for Ontario International Airport, but the flight was redirected.
China has reported more than 24,000 confirmed cases of the virus and more than 400 deaths, up sharply from Monday. At least 180 cases have been reported outside of mainland China, including two deaths, with one each in Hong Kong and the Philippines.
There have been 11 cases of the virus confirmed in the United States, including those in Los Angeles and Orange counties, but no deaths.
The new coronavirus is a member of the coronavirus family that’s a close cousin to the SARS and MERS viruses that have caused outbreaks in the past.
Staff writers Ryan Hagen and Ian Wheeler and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
