Coronavirus: CDC issues ‘unprecedented’ federal quarantine for Americans returning from Wuhan as US airlines halt China flights

All 195 US citizens that were repatriated from Wuhan, China, have been placed under a federal quarantine order in an attempt to stop the spread of the coronavirus.

This is the first time the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued a quarantine order in 50 years.

The order came at the direction of Health and Human Services Secretary, Alex Azar.

On Friday, Dr Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC’s National Centre for Immunisation and Respiratory Diseases, said: “While we realise this is an unprecedented action, this is an unprecedented threat.”

She added: “We would rather be remembered for overreacting than underreacting.”

It is believed that the last time the CDC issued such an order was to evaluate a possible small pox outbreak in the 1960s.

While it is unclear if any of the people being held in quarantine at the March Air Reserve Base near Ontario, California, have contracted the virus, Dr Messonnier stated that a “negative result on a test will not help us confirm that people will be safe from this disease.”

On Thursday, after the specially chartered flight had arrived from China, one of the passengers attempted to leave the base and was placed in quarantine by Riverside County health officials.

The quarantine period for all 195 people is two weeks from when their flight left Wuhan. This corresponds to the incubation period for the virus. Initially they were to stay on the base for three days.

Politico reports that officials are planning to evacuate more Americans next week from Wuhan, and are also considering a mandatory evacuation of all US citizens.

As demand for travel to China plummets, all three US airlines with routes into China are scaling back and halting operations.

American Airlines has cancelled all flights to mainland China beginning immediately after the airline’s pilots’ union filed a lawsuit on Thursday asking to stop flights. Initially the airline said it would cancel some flights between 9 February and 27 March.

United Airlines initially said it would cancel some flights in February due to decreased demand, but joined American on Friday saying that it would suspend all flights between 6 February and 28 March.

Delta Air Lines has the longest suspension of operations of any airline, announcing it would halt flights between 6 February and 30 April.

Airlines across the world have taken similar measures.

On Thursday, the State Department raised the travel advisory level from three to four, or from ‘reconsider travel’ to ‘do not travel’, as well as allowing for the voluntary departure of non-emergency personnel and family members of US government employees from China.

So far there are six confirmed cases in the US. Five patients had recently travelled back to the US from China, and a sixth, who is married to one of the five, was the first person-to-person transmission on US soil.

A further 241 people in the US are being monitored.

Canada confirmed its fourth case on Friday, when a woman in her 20s who had travelled from Wuhan and had initially tested negative, was deemed to have a viral load high enough to be considered positive. She had worn a mask on her journey to Ontario. Officials said had a mild illness and recovered in three days.

On Thursday the World Health Organisation declared the virus a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.