State officials had proposed a contingency plan after the Department of Defense informed them that patients who tested positive must be moved from the base.
Source: The Sacramento Bee
Source: The San Francisco Chronicle
The patients being considered for transfer are reportedly exhibiting moderate symptoms and have not received confirmation from the CDC that they have tested positive for the virus. But according to the San Francisco Chronicle, they likely will test positive for the coronavirus disease, based on estimated rates of infection.
The transfer would not include the passengers from the cruise ship that have infections confirmed by the CDC. Those were taken to local hospitals for treatment, not to the Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield, California, which is about 50 miles northeast of San Francisco. One of those passengers is being treated in San Francisco.
Source: The New York Times and Business Insider
The morning after the former passenger tested positive for the virus, 10 people on board the ship also were confirmed to have contracted it. That number ballooned to more than 690 cases over the course of the two-week quarantine and testing, during which time passengers were confined to their rooms.
Health experts criticized the decision to quarantine passengers on the ship. One microbiologist told the Montreal Gazette that the ship served as more of an incubator for the virus more than a quarantine.
"The quarantine was not justified, and violated the individual rights of the passengers while allowing the virus to literally pick them off one-by-one," Dr. Amesh Adalja, who works at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, told Business Insider in an email.
Four passengers in their 80s died.
Some evacuees were also sent to Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas.
Source: The San Francisco Chronicle
Source: The San Francisco Chronicle
Dr. Stephen Parodi, an infectious disease expert at Kaiser Permanente, told the Chronicle that it was sensible to separate coronavirus patients with moderate symptoms from those exhibiting more severe reactions.
The coronavirus disease has now infected 80,000 people, with most cases in China where the new coronavirus originated. The US has confirmed 60 cases of the virus, including 42 people who were passengers on the Diamond Princess cruise ship.
The latest US patient is a California resident and had no known exposure to the virus, suggesting that this is the first case of "community spread."
For the latest case total, death toll, and travel information, see Business Insider's live updates here.
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