ABSTRACT
On January 29, 2020, a total of 195 US citizens were evacuated from the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic in Wuhan, China, to March Air Reserve Base in Riverside, California, and entered the first federally mandated quarantine in over 50 years. With less than 1-d notice, a multi-disciplinary team from Riverside County and Riverside University Health System in conjunction with local and federal agencies established on-site 24-h medical care and behavioral health support. This report details the coordinated efforts by multiple teams that took place to provide care for the passengers and to support the surrounding community.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Delivery of Health Care, Integrated , Humans , Pandemics/prevention & control , COVID-19/epidemiology , SARS-CoV-2 , China/epidemiologyABSTRACT
To determine prevalence of, seroprevalence of, and potential exposure to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) among a cohort of evacuees returning to the United States from Wuhan, China, in January 2020, we conducted a cross-sectional study of quarantined evacuees from 1 repatriation flight. Overall, 193 of 195 evacuees completed exposure surveys and submitted upper respiratory or serum specimens or both at arrival in the United States. Nearly all evacuees had taken preventive measures to limit potential exposure while in Wuhan, and none had detectable SARS-CoV-2 in upper respiratory tract specimens, suggesting the absence of asymptomatic respiratory shedding among this group at the time of testing. Evidence of antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 was detected in 1 evacuee, who reported experiencing no symptoms or high-risk exposures in the previous 2 months. These findings demonstrated that this group of evacuees posed a low risk of introducing SARS-CoV-2 to the United States.
