Trump administration announces mandatory quarantines in response to coronavirus

The White House declared a "national public health emergency" and - beginning on Sunday at 5 p.m. - will bar any non-U.S. citizen who recently visited China from entering the United States.

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar also said the Trump administration was establishing mandatory quarantines for any Americans who visited the Hubei province of China within the past 14 days and require screening and self-quarantines for all other Americans who recently visited any other parts of China. Shortly after a White House press conference in which officials said there were six confirmed U.S. cases, a seventh case was confirmed in Santa Clara County, Calif.

The new travel and quarantine measures, which appeared to be unprecedented on such a scale, were part of a rapidly evolving and occasionally disjointed international response to the growing health scare, in part because officials are learning that the coronavirus is much more difficult to detect than initially thought and can transmit from people who don't show any symptoms. New cases were reported Friday in the United Kingdom and Russia, and Canada confirmed its fourth case later in the day.

"This is a serious health situation in China, but I want to emphasize that the risk to the American public currently is low," said Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "Our goal is to do all we can do to keep it that way."

"Right now, there's a lot of unknowns," he added later.

White House officials said the new restrictions would be temporary but did not say when they might be lifted. Meanwhile, major U.S. airlines that travel to China -- American Airlines, United Airlines and Delta Air Lines -- announced they were suspending their flights to the country, in some cases until late March. The duration of these cancellations showed how governments and businesses are now preparing for much longer-term interruptions than initially thought, raising the possibility that there could be a sizable impact on the global economy.

Many Chinese businesses remain closed, and China is a top trading partner of a number of countries throughout the world.

These announcements helped send the U.S. stock market sharply lower, with the Dow Jones industrial average falling Friday by a dramatic 600 points, or more than 2 percent. 

At a hastily arranged afternoon press briefing, White House officials stressed that they believed there was little risk to the U.S. public from the coronavirus and that the measures were an attempt to keep it that way. But their comments also revealed how rapidly the process is evolving. 

Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said that the process for testing people for the coronavirus had proven very imprecise so far and that this is one of the reasons for the aggressive U.S. response. He said that so far the government was unable to know with 100 percent certainty whether someone tested for the coronavirus actually has it. Officials also believe that at least one person, in Germany, has obtained the virus from someone who didn't exempt any symptoms. These developments have caused the U.S. government to markedly escalate their response.

"We still have a low risk to the American public, but we want to keep it at a low risk," Fauci said, adding that there "are so many unkowns here."

 

The White House announcement came as major U.S. airlines that travel to China -- American, United and Delta -- announced they were suspending their flights to the country.

Ken Cuccinelli, acting director of the Citizenship and Immigration Services, said American travelers coming from China would be funneled through seven major airports to ensure they can be screened: New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, Chicago O'Hare International Airport, San Francisco International Airport, Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Daniel K. Inouye International Airport, Los Angeles International Airport.

The mandatory quarantines -- an extremely rare step -- will apply to U.S. citizens who've been in the Hubei province in the past two weeks. All of the new steps will take effect at 5 p.m. Eastern time on Sunday.

Not long before the new policies were announced, U.S. health officials on Friday imposed a quarantine for 195 evacuees who arrived from Wuhan this week at a military base in California.

The coronavirus emerged in China in early December. The virus so far has killed more than 200 people, all of whom have been in China, and infected more than 9,800 people in at least 24 countries. There have been more than 100 cases reported outside of China. At least 12 people who have contracted the virus have not recently traveled to China and were infected from other people.

The number of those infected has surpassed the SARS 2003 outbreak, but the new coronavirus appears to be less deadly. Studies have estimated that each infected person spreads the virus to two to three other people.

Late Thursday, the State Department issued a "do not travel" advisory for China, the department's highest warning level, which previously had only been in place for the Hubei province where the outbreak began.

President Donald Trump himself so far has remained uncharacteristically muted on the coronavirus and praised China's extraordinary response to the growing outbreak. On Wednesday, he tweeted out photos of his Situation Room briefing and said his administration was working closely with China to contain the outbreak.

Even with the Senate in the midst of Trump's impeachment trial, a number of GOP lawmakers have begun pushing the administration on its response to the virus. The steps the administration announced did not go as far as some were pushing for.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, called Friday for the administration to issue an outright ban on travel to and from China and impose increased screenings at U.S. airports.

"Given the severity of the coronavirus in China and its rapid spread across the region, as well as the mounting public fear, it's imperative that this disease is contained," Cruz said. "The administration should take every precaution in preventing additional cases from arriving in the United States, including temporarily halting flights to and from China and implementing additional screening at all U.S. airports."