Mecklenburg County Public Health is monitoring four travelers from China who have been deemed at “medium risk” of developing or infecting others with the novel coronavirus, County Manager Dena Diorio said.
In a news release issued Friday, Diorio shared an email sent to the Board of County Commissioners from Health Director Gibbie Harris, which stressed that there are no confirmed cases of coronavirus in North Carolina.
However, individuals traveling from mainland China are being assessed at the airport of arrival, and if found to be symptom-free, they are being sent on to their home destination for voluntary quarantine.
Mecklenburg County received four such individuals Friday. They will be monitored for 14 days from the last possible exposure by the Mecklenburg County Health Department.
“We want to assure that the community has the information it needs to be safe and protect themselves and others,” Harris wrote in the email.
“However, we want to avoid unwarranted concern. Our area is still considered to have a very low risk for this novel virus.”
Information will be regularly updated at MeckHealth.org.
Any traveler visiting the United States from Hubei Province in China is being quarantined for 14 days because that is considered “the epicenter of the outbreak.” Travelers from all other areas of China are simply being monitored, like the Mecklenburg County individuals.
The first American death from the virus was confirmed Saturday, a 60-year-old man who died in a hospital in Wuhan on Thursday.
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