New: The U.S. is placing 195 Americans who were evacuated from Wuhan, China, under a mandatory 14-day quarantine in an effort to limit the possible spread of the coronavirus.
"The HHS secretary has issued federal quarantine orders for all 195 passengers," said Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the CDC. She added that the quarantine's 14-day period began with their removal from Wuhan earlier this week.
The quarantine was announced one day after the World Health Organization declared the Wuhan coronavirus to be a global health emergency. Earlier, the State Department warned Americans, issuing its highest-level safety advisory due to concerns about the deadly respiratory virus. "While we recognize this is an unprecedented action, we are facing an unprecedented public health threat," Messonnier said."And this is one of the tools in our toolbox to mitigate the potential impact of this novel virus on the United States."
There are currently six confirmed coronavirus cases in the U.S., including two cases in Illinois that represent the firstIt's the first time the CDC has issued a quarantine order in more than 50 years, she added. The agency was established in 1946. The last time the U.S. instituted a quarantine was to evaluate suspected cases of smallpox in the 1960s, a CDC official said. Messonnier said the agency would rather be remembered for overreacting than underreacting to the coronavirus."We must be proactive and aggressive," she said.
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