Thursday marked the second day of a two-week federal quarantine for nearly 200 evacuees from China who are spending their time under the watchful eye of health officials at Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield.
Each family gets a room of their own at the Westwind Inn. Free meals are handed out. Twice a day, doctors check everyone's body temperature, looking for any symptom of the new and deadly coronavirus.
"We're very grateful that we got out, we got out of China when we did," Frank Hannum, who is under quarantine at the base, said.
Frank and Hope Hannum were visiting Hope's family in Hubei Province right when the Chinese government placed the region under lockdown to contain the spread of the virus. The couple contacted the U.S. embassy and eventually received two seats on a cargo plane headed straight for Fairfield.
"They were all in hazmat suits," Frank Hannum said. "We were all wearing masks and everything. It's a little surreal."
Now it's a waiting game for all 178 evacuees temporarily housed at the base.
"We're outside, we don't have our masks on because there's nobody else around us at this time, but they're taking really good care of us," Frank Hannum said.
A mobile laundry unit is on site to make sure clothes and linens are washed without any cross-contamination.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Travis airmen will have no contact with any of the evacuees under quarantine.
When the 14-day quarantine is over and if the evacuees do not show signs of any symptoms, they will be released and allowed to return home.
Until then, the wait continues.
"It's really the best thing that we could do for the people here in the United States is make sure that we're not contagious," Frank Hannum said.
