Officials: 70 China evacuees to be quarantined in Nebraska

Officials said Thursday that 70 Americans being evacuated from China over a viral outbreak will be flown into Omaha and quarantined at a nearby Nebraska National Guard training base.

The evacuees will arrive at Eppley Airfield on Thursday or Friday and park in a remote spot. University of Nebraska Medical Center Chancellor Jeffrey Gold said during a news conference that all the evacuees should be healthy when they arrive from Wuhan, China, the center of the new coronavirus outbreak.

They will be quarantined for 14 days and monitored closely for any signs of illness. Anyone who shows signs of illness would be be brought to a hospital for treatment and isolation.

Nebraska National Guard officials have been preparing to house evacuees in three buildings with 85 hotel-style rooms at the camp. Guard officials have said the evacuees won't interact with guardsmen or employees there.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has said that planes also will arrive at military bases in California and Texas.

The new virus is in the coronavirus family that includes Middle East respiratory syndrome, or MERS, and severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS. It causes fever, cough, shortness of breath and, in severe cases, pneumonia. It has sickened more than 20,000 people and killed nearly 500, virtually all in China.

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