The first group of people in quarantined in San Antonio over the coronavirus were released on Thursday after 14 days.
The 90 evacuees at Lackland Air Force Base will now be allowed to go home, wherever that is in the United States. Health officials reported that the evacuees had emerged from the likely incubation period for this virus.
Dr. Anita Kurian, who directs the Communicable Disease Division of the city’s health department, explained that the patients, who were evacuated from China’s Hubei Province, “did not develop any symptoms, and now they’re considered no risk.”
A statement from the Centers for Disease Control stressed that “[i]t is important to know that these people being released from quarantine pose no health risk to the surrounding community, or to the communities they will be returning to.”
One traveler tested positive for COVID-19 during the quarantine period last week and was transferred to Methodist Texsan hospital. Also on Thursday, the hospital announced the individual was treated and transferred to another medicial facility “for ongoing evaluation.” It did not identify the facility, and it did not identify the patient.
Lackland continued a quarantine for a second group of evacuees from the Diamond Princess cruise ship docked near Tokyo, Japan. They were flown from Japan to the U.S. in mid-February.
In a statement on Monday following the second group’s arrival at Lackland, San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg said that “the risk to the general public of contracting COVID-19 continues to remain low. Every precaution has been taken to keep the public isolated from these travelers who are in a precautionary quarantine and any travelers who have shown symptoms of the virus. Our residents should continue to go about their lives.”
Also on Thursday, the CDC announced it would no longer remove anyone in a coronavirus quarantine from the on-base housing facility to test them for COVID-19.
The testing will now occur on the base facilities and only seriously sick evacuees will go to the hospital.
The original plan had been to move them to a hospital for testing if they had symptoms of an upper respiratory infection, including a fever.
Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff had a problem with that, as did San Antonio Metro Health Director Dawn Emerick.
On TPR’s “The Source,” Emerick said Thursday that it made no sense for people with minimal symptoms to go to off-base hospitals for COVID-19 testing and then remain in isolation at the hospital until the results came in.
“We don’t want folks sitting in our hospitals for three to four days when we don’t even know what the test results are,” she said. “That puts an amazing amount of strain and resources on our health care system that is 100 percent avoidable.”
Senator John Cornyn and Nirenberg met with federal health officials on Thursday to discuss the details of the new protocols.
Emerick also warned that even though current procedures are successful, that didn’t mean the city could do this again and again with future evacuees.
“I would say that it’s working now,” she said, “but I don’t think the system is strong enough to take on any additional burden at this time.”
Emerick said the quarantine was financially straining the city’s public health resources. She said her counterparts in other communities facing similar situations felt a similar burden.
“And we are all in alignment, 100%,” she said, “that we should be getting financial compensation for this.”
It was not clear if Lackland was expected to house any more evacuees. Defense Department officials said the base can house up to 250 quarantined people.
More information about the coronavirus disease is available at the CDC’s Novel Coronavirus 2019 website. Updates for Bexar County residents are available from Metro Health here.
Bonnie Petrie can be reached at Bonnie@TPR.org and on Twitter at @kbonniepetrie.
Brian Kirkpatrick can be reached at Brian@TPR.org and on Twitter at @TPRBrian.
Fernando Ortiz Jr. contributed to this report.
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