US DENIES entry to any foreign national who has visited China over the past two weeks, while United joins Delta and American Airlines in suspending ALL flights to China due to coronavirus
by Ralph R. Ortega For Dailymail.com- The Trump administration on Friday declared the coronavirus a public health emergency, effectively bnning foreign nationals who have been to China in the past two weeks from entering the United States
- American Airlines cancelled all of its US flights to China, and said it was not to resume scheduled service until March 27
- Delta Airlines said it will stop all US flights to China by next Wednesday, and keep the ban going till at least April 30
- United will cancel all flights to China, except one from San Francisco to Hong Kong, starting Thursday, and will keep the ban until March 28
- All bans come after the World Health Organization said the rapidly spreading outbreak constitutes a 'Public Health Emergency of International Concern'
- Cases have risen to 9,950 globally. Sweden and Russia on Friday became the latest countries to report the virus, following a reported case in Germany
- At least 213 people are known to have died from the virus in China, which admitted it was too slow to react to the outbreak
The Trump administration has temporarily banned foreign nationals who have been to China in the past two weeks from entering the United States.
It came as American Airlines, Delta and United suspend all flights to China for at least a month due to coronavirus fears.
President Donald Trump declared coronovirus a public health emergency as he signed an order on Friday denying entry to the foreign nationals, but immediate family of US citizens were exempt from that order.
Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said that anyone who has been in China's Hubei province, where Wuhan - the epicenter of the outbreak - is located, in the past two weeks will be subject to mandatory quarantine for 14 days.
The ban comes as American Airlines, Delta and United announced they are suspending flights to China in response to the deadly coronavirus outbreak which has killed more than 200 people.
American suspended all flights to China Friday through March 27, while Delta was to stop service next week, along with United.
Delta said it is suspending all of its US flights to China starting this upcoming Wednesday. The flight ban will last until April 30, the US carrier says.
United was suspending all flights, except one daily from San Francisco to Hong Kong, starting Thursday, and was to keep the ban in effect until March 28.
The flight bans were announced after the World Health Organization, or WHO, determined the rapidly spreading outbreak constitutes a 'Public Health Emergency of International Concern,' and the US State Department issued its highest-level warning against travel to China on Thursday.
Chinese officials fired back after the US advisory, saying it was an 'inappropriate response', while promising that the coronavirus which began late last year in Wuhan, would get under control.
Cases, on a global scale, have now risen to 9,950.
In the US, it was reported Friday that a person in Santa Clara, California, became the seventh American diagnosed.
Additionally, health officials confirmed for the first time that a case of person-to-person transmission of coronavirus in the US had taken place, after a man in Illinois was infected by his wife, who had previously traveled to China.
The couple, who have not been identified, are now both being isolated at St Alexius Hospital in Hoffman Estates, a suburb of Chicago. According to officials from the Illinois Department of Health, the wife is 'doing well' and the husband is 'stable'.
The wife traveled to Wuhan - where the virus originated - in late December to take care of her elderly father. She arrived at O'Hare International Airport on January 13, but did not begin experiencing symptoms until several days later.
The remaining US cases were confirmed in Maricopa County, Arizona; Orange County and Los Angeles County California; and Snohomish County, Washington.
Abroad, Sweden, confirmed a case for the first time Friday, reported a patient is being treated at the Ryhov County Hospital in Jönköping – 95miles (153km) east of Gothenburg.
Russia also confirmed it too was impacted by the outbreak with two cases in Siberia - but both are thought to be around 2,485miles (4,000km) apart.
Additionally, cases have been reported in Australia, Cambodia, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Nepal, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates, the UK and Vietnam.
The development comes after Germany announced its sixth case – a child in Munich who is reported to be in a stable condition.
The flu-like illness has been blamed for the deaths of at least 213 people in China, which admitted it reacted too slowly to the outbreak.
Trump originally dismissed the known US cases of coronavirus as a 'very little problem' in an effort to reassure the American public.
The administration, however, was forced to make its emergency declaration as it moved to step up measures to contain the disease. Citizens returning to the US who have visited Hubei within two weeks of coming back will be under a mandatory 14-day quarantine.
US Public Health Emergency Declared
The White House on Friday declared the coronavirus outbreak a public health emergency in the US, where just seven cases have been confirmed.
But as the virus has quickly spread in China and around the globe the Department of Health and Human Services and President Donald Trump are stepping up measures to contain the deadly new disease.
While the outbreak is ongoing, President Trump has issued an order that will block all foreign nationals except for the immediate family of US citizens or permanent residents from entering the US.
Citizens returning to the US who have visited Hubei province - where Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak, is located - within two weeks of coming back will be under a mandatory 14 day quarantine.
Those who have traveled elsewhere in mainland China will be subject to a 14-day self-imposed quarantine.
Those who have traveled elsewhere in mainland China will be subject to a 14-day self-imposed quarantine.
To help contain the disease from further spreading, all flights returning to the US from anywhere in China will be funneled through seven airports: John F Kennedy International Airport in New York, Chicago O'Hare International Airport, Seattle, San Francisco, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Daniel K Inouye International Airport in Honolulu and Los Angeles International Airport (LAX).
US officials earlier Friday issued an 'unprecedented' federal quarantine for all 195 passengers evacuated from Wuhan, and said Friday that their test for the coronavirus may come back negative if someone hasn't developed symptoms - but they could later become ill.
The state department warned that 'travelers should be prepared for travel restrictions to be put into effect with little or no advance notice. Commercial carriers have reduced or suspended routes to and from China.'
Nola Lu, a public relations specialist in Austin, Texas, made a public tweet to get American Airlines' attention to help her mother, whose flight was cancelled out of China.
'@AmericanAir My mom is now stranded in Shanghai with the news that all AA flights to China are suspended until Mar. 27. She was originally scheduled to fly back to Austin on Feb. 16. What are her options? What can you do to help?' wrote Lu.
The airline responded that it was reducing its operations to China, but still had 'limited flights there and back', and that that the air carrier would contact her 'if her travels are affected'.
Lu responded back that the airline may not have an easy time reaching out to her mother. 'Being in China, she has limited to no access to calls, emails or even news of what's going on. I'm her proxy trying to solve this situation', Lu wrote back.
One traveler who goes by @BePopK tweeted that their flight out of China was abruptly cancelled.
'OMG!!!! They cancelled the China to SG leg of our flight without telling us!!!!! Wth?!?!' the traveler tweeted, adding in a follow up post that the cancelled flight was refunded.
Another Twitter user, Matt Rieck, posted a question to Delta asking when he would be notified of his cancelled flight after reading or a possible cancellation that was coming in a news report.
'Why am I learning of my flight cancellation from a @USATODAY article?' the traveler who goes by @and_per_se on the social media platform.
Other travelers were turning to social media to complain of confusion over the bans.
'All flights?' tweeted @Dr.Anonymous, 'Or just flights to China, because I am way concerned about the flights coming from China.'
A Twitter user who goes by @RandyinNebraska posted an image of a traveler in a surgical mask posing with an airport official in a containment suit, saying his friend had just returned from Changsha, and that the Chinese city of 8 million people four hours south of Wuhan had turned into a 'ghost town'.
Some online even took it upon themselves to demand that President Trump impose a complete ban on all flights into China.
American said its employees are reaching out to passengers, to 'directly to accommodate their needs'.
The carrier also was to evaluate its schedule for March 28 'and beyond' to make adjustments to the ban as necessary.
Until Delta's ban goes into effect, the carrier says it will continue to operate flights to accommodate those passengers who are able to leave China, the carrier said in a press release on its website.
The carrier said that the 'last China-bound flight departing the US will leave this Monday, with the last return flight back to the US departing China on Wednesday.
Delta plans to 'continue to monitor the situation closely and may make additional adjustments as the situation continues to evolve.'
Football player evacuated from Wuhan amid coronavirus panic shares video of journey home and says he's been INUNDATED with messages from women who want to be 'quarantined with him'
An American football player who was evacuated from Wuhan on a State Department plane amid the coronavirus outbreak has revealed to DailyMail.com videos and photos from inside the California air base where he is now being held - and the many messages he is now receiving from female fans asking to be 'quarantined' with him.
Jarred Evans, who is from New York but has spent the last football season in Wuhan playing for the Wuhan Berserkers, was among some 200 US citizens who were flown out of the Chinese city this week.
Now, he is being held on the March Air Base in Riverside, California, until he is cleared to travel home.
Evans has not tested positive for the virus but vigilant medics at the air base are eager for everyone there to spend at least three days under observation.
In an interview with DailyMail.com on Friday morning, he revealed that while people are not going into each other's rooms on the base, they are mingling outdoors and playing football together.
'It's being taken very seriously but it's also relaxed... we talk to each other outside,' he said.
Sharing photos and videos from the flight, he said everyone on the plane cheered and applauded when they landed.
'We're just happy to be home,' he said, while sparing a thought for the other US citizens and millions of Chinese people still trapped in shut-down Wuhan.
Evans was in China preparing for his next season, in Switzerland, when the coronavirus panic spread.
He said it began in the second week of January. A Chinese-speaking friend of his told him that he'd just seen an alert on the state news agency about a virus and warned him to go and stock up on food and water.
'I didn't speak Chinese but my friends were like, 'be careful.' Three days later my friend said, 'Go to the store now with a face mask and gloves and get as much as you can. They're going to shut down the city.'
'I took it as a joke. [I thought], I'm from New York which is a city of seven million people. In Wuhan there are 11 million. I'm thinking, they're not going to shut down an entire city, but sure enough they did.
'It turned into a frenzy. People were fighting over masks, fighting over food. There were lines out the doors of stores. The shelves were empty,' he said
Evans said he stocked up on 10 gallons of water and as much 'bacon, chicken, eggs, rice and noodles' that he could find.
'I was bracing myself to survive this for two or three weeks, a month in my home.
'Honestly, nobody went outside. Eleven million people are inside their homes. No one is going outside. It is a complete shut down.'
He paid his gas and electricity bills in advance to ensure they would remain on and hunkered down in his apartment to wait out the crisis.
Then, he was alerted to the American government's announcement that they would send a plane for US citizens.
After contacting the embassy in Beijing and providing his information, he was told he'd been given one of the coveted seats on the plane.
'One of the rules we weren't to share on social media. I heard and saw a couple people weren't allowed into the airport - you're not on the list, you gotta go.
'As a US citizen, seeing other US citizens not able to go home to their families... if I was in that situation, I wouldn't know what to do.
'I would have been hurt. My heart and my prayers not only the US citizens there but the Chinese friends I have because this is scary,' he said.
During the roughly 18 hour flight, Evans said medics in hazmat suits checked passengers' temperatures at least 15 times.
The plane itself was a cargo plane that had been specially outfitted with commercial passenger seats.
'It was not Emirates,' he joked.
The flight took them from Wuhan to Alaska, where they cleared customs, and then on to California. Once there, they were assigned rooms on the base.
While there are still strict checks in place, the mood on the base is not as high alert now as it first was, he said.
If anything, the virus outbreak has brought Evans an increase in female fans.
While he bashfully admitted already receiving compliments from his vast social media following, he told DailyMail.com there had been a change in the types of messages he was now receiving.
'Holy moly.... I have a lot of followers anyway but these people are different now.
'There's definitely an increase. I got a message this morning where the girl said, 'I jut saw you on the news. I would definitely want to be quarantined with you!' A lot of people have just pretty much given me their best wishes, saying they're glad I am home.'
Evans says he plans to spend no more than a few more nights on the base before traveling home to New York and then onto Switzerland to carry on with sport.
He said he would eventually return to China but not until it is safe.
'It's a beautiful place - I love the people there and the culture. It's getting a bad name right now but it's beautiful,' he said.
Coronavirus has now claimed more than 200 lives worldwide.
There are seven confirmed cases in the US.