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Traveler taken to new Point Mugu coronavirus quarantine site, officials confirm

A traveler who arrived at Los Angeles International Airport was transported Sunday night to the new coronavirus quarantine site at Ventura County Naval Base's Point Mugu, federal officials confirmed Monday.

No information was initially released on the traveler, but officials said all of the people who would be candidates to be quarantined and monitored at the Ventura County site would be U.S. citizens who had not shown any symptoms of the virus.

The quarantine would be based solely on their travel, meaning they visited a region where they could have been exposed to coronavirus.

On Monday evening, officials for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a statement explaining the quarantined traveler recently visited Hubei Province, China, epicenter of the virus. They said the person showed no signs of the illness, will be monitored daily and posed no risk to the community.

The traveler's arrival marks the beginning of the use of an isolated barracks as a 20-bed quarantine site. U.S. Health and Human Services officials announced late Sunday night that Point Mugu could potentially be used for quarantines, one of several such sites set up across the country.

That use has already begun, said Gretchen Michael on Monday. The spokeswoman for U.S. Health and Human Services confirmed the traveler arrived Sunday. She said all the people placed at Point Mugu will have flown into LAX, will have been screened repeatedly and will have shown no signs of the virus.

The move to quarantine travelers, added officials in a federal news release Sunday, reflects "an abundance of caution." 

Melinda Larson, public affairs officer for Naval Base Ventura County, said the traveler was transported to the base on Sunday, a day after Health and Human Services officials arrived at Point Mugu to work on preparations for the quarantine site. She said discussions on the site began last week.

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The quarantined people will stay in an otherwise empty barracks that has been surrounded by a fence and is also watched by security, said Larson.

"These passengers will be confined throughout quarantine and there will be no contact with Department of Defense personnel," she said, referring to a base community estimated at a "few thousand" people. She too emphasized the people quarantined are healthy.

"If they become symptomatic, they will be transferred to a medical facility," she said. Federal officials did not identify the hospitals that would be used.

Michael said Point Mugu was needed as a quarantine site after March Air Reserve Base in Riverside County finished its operations as an evacuee site. She rejected the rumor that passengers from the coronavirus-hit Diamond Princess cruise ship will be taken to Mugu.

"That's not the case," she said.

A community meeting was scheduled for Monday night on base at Point Mugu but was not opened to the general public or the media. Larson said speakers will include a doctor from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The intent is to squash rumors and fears.

"This is not a coronavirus patient; it is a passenger who is traveling through LAX," said Larson.

But others called for such meetings to be open to the public.

"The county and the residents deserve a public forum to address concerns and questions about COVID-19," said Adriane Carrier, nurse and union leader at St. John's Regional Medical Center in Oxnard. "Health care workers deserve to have a forum."

Fears that the establishment of the local quarantine site could facilitate spread of the virus abounded on social media. Told of the news at a Camarillo coffeehouse, Donna Sepulveda-Weber's eyes widened.

"That doesn't make me happy," she said, worrying about the proximity of the quarantine site. "Aren't there are other more remote places? This is not that remote."

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Leo Hernandez, a pizza restaurant cook from Ventura, offered the opposite reaction.

"I think it's a good idea — just to be safe," he said, focusing on the use of 14-day quarantines to fight against the virus's spread.

In a message to sailors, families and base employees, Naval Base Ventura County Commanding Officer Jeff Chism said the base will offer 100% support to Health and Human Services but said the exact methods are "still evolving."

"We will assist HHS in an effective and dignified repatriation process while we ensure the safety and well-being of our residents and tenants — this is inherent in our mission," he said.

A coronavirus quarantine site has been started at  Naval Base Ventura County. The site will be used by people who fly into LAX after visiting places where they could have been exposed.

U.S. Rep. Julia Brownley, D-Westlake Village, said she has been in contact with federal, state and local officials and will monitor the situation. She praised the people who work at the base.

"I have great confidence in their ability to execute the most stringent protocols and to ensure those quarantined at the base are well taken care of and to ensure there is no danger to the public at large," she said.

Brownley's staff said they received "a few" phone calls of concern from the community and expected the numbers to rise.

In a news release Sunday, officials said Health and Human Services was working closely with the Defense Department and other federal partners to take "all reasonable steps" to address what it called an "evolving public health emergency."

On Monday, local officials also confirmed that Ventura County Department of Public Health was looped into the discussions.

The virus has been linked to more than 79,000 infections worldwide and more than 2,600 deaths, almost all in China, according to the World Health Organization. 

No cases of coronavirus have emerged in Ventura County. Two people were tested but lab results showed no signs of the illness. 

The HHS statement on Sunday said imported coronavirus cases from "a small number of travelers" have been detected in the U.S., but that the virus is not currently spreading in American communities and that the immediate risk to the public is currently low.

Tom Kisken covers health care for the Ventura County Star. Reach him at tkisken@vcstar.com or 805-437-0255. Staff writer Gretchen Wenner contributed to this report.

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