A child among 195 people quarantined at a Southern California airbase after evacuation from a virus-stricken area of China developed a fever and was hospitalized for testing and observation, local authorities said Tuesday.
The child and a parent of the child were taken by ambulance Monday evening from March Air Reserve Base to Riverside University Health System-Medical Center, Riverside County public health officials said in a statement.
They were among the first group of U.S. citizens evacuated on a chartered flight from the Chinese city of Wuhan at the epicenter of the new virus and placed under a 14-day federal quarantine.
All had received testing for the coronavirus before departing China, while en route at a refueling stop in Alaska and after arriving at the base east of Los Angeles.
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The child was swab tested again Monday and the sample was sent to the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta for evaluation, said Riverside County health department spokesman Jose Arballo Jr.
Although medical teams on the base have been evaluating the quarantined Americans, the child was taken to the hospital “out of an abundance of caution.,” the statement from Riverside county health officials said.
Also Monday, a traveler who arrived at Los Angeles International Airport on a flight from China was placed under federal quarantine and transferred to March Air Reserve Base.
“The individual has no symptoms of novel coronavirus, but was moved to March out of an abundance of caution and because of their travel history,” the county said.
The person is isolated from the others under quarantine at the base.
The new virus 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.
