Life in coronavirus quarantine: Patient takes video to show what it’s like on US base
What’s it like inside the coronavirus quarantine centers set up at military bases around the United States? According to one man who evacuated Wuhan, waiting out the possible virus on California’s Travis Air Force Base is, in a word, boring.
The virus outbreak has killed more than 1,100 people since it was first reported in China on Dec. 31, the Associated Press reports. The World Health Organization says more than 43,000 people have been infected worldwide, with most of them in central China.
So far, there have been 13 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the U.S. — with seven in California and “others in Arizona, Illinois, Massachusetts and Washington,” NBC News reported.
Public health officials in the United States have set up quarantine centers at military bases for people evacuating coronavirus hot spots to make sure they’re not infected.
Jeffrey Ho left the epicenter of the outbreak in China’s Hubei Province to return to work as a mechanic in the U.S., according to an interview with Storyful.
“I spend a lot of time doing nothing,” Ho told the video news service by phone. “I’m going through 3-5 movies a day.”
Ho has about another week to wait during the 14-day quarantine at the U.S. Air Force base between Sacramento and San Francisco, he told the site.
“Overall pretty boring but at least I’m in America and if I do get sick there is at least space in the hospital to treat me, not like Wuhan where their hospitals are all maxed out and have to turn away patients that need help,” Ho said on Instagram soon after he arrived on the base.
“Quarantine is in a hotel that is nicely equipped with microwave, fridge, cable TV, and wifi,” he said. “I can walk around the hotel freely and can even go outside and it looks to be limited by a temp fence around the hotel.”
This story was originally published February 12, 2020 at 5:52 AM with the headline "Life in coronavirus quarantine: Patient takes video to show what it’s like on US base."
