The State Department is planning several more flights to evacuate American citizens from the area in China where the coronavirus originated, officials said Monday.
“We have a handful more flights that will be heading to China to bring Americans back home from Hubei province,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said at a press briefing in Uzbekistan. “The exact timing of those we’re still coordinating with the Chinese government.”
The Hubei province includes Wuhan, the city where the epidemic began. The virus, a respiratory illness, has killed more than 360 people, most of whom were elderly or otherwise suffered from compromised immune systems, and infected over 17,000 in China. At least 11 people in the U.S. have contracted the virus, all of whom recently traveled to Wuhan or caught it from a spouse who traveled there. No one in the U.S. has died from the virus.
A flight chartered by the State Department evacuated 210 U.S. citizens from Wuhan and landed on Wednesday at March Air Reserve Base near Riverside, California, where they are currently living in quarantine for 14 days.
“We might be bringing citizens home from other countries as well,” Pompeo added.
On Thursday, the State Department bumped its China travel advisory up to the highest threat level, just hours after the World Health Organization determined the rapidly spreading outbreak of the respiratory illness constitutes a “public health emergency of international concern.”
“We have seen a spectrum of illness among cases in the U.S.,” Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the Center for the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Disease, told reporters on Monday.
“Strong measures now may blunt the impact on the United States,” she added. “No option is off the table, and it is very localized depending on the state and local considerations.”