A century ago, California had a quarantine station on Angel Island that held 400 beds, a hospital, disinfecting plant, laboratories and convalescence quarters.
Today, that facility and similarly isolated sites at Ellis Island and along the Mexico border are long gone — and the federal government, confronted by the threat of coronavirus, is urgently trying to find somewhere to put people.
But no one wants them.
In legal papers filed Friday, the state and federal governments say that people infected by the coronavirus at Fairfield’s Travis Air Force Base, evacuated from the ill-fated Diamond Princess cruise, need a facility that can provide up to 30 days of isolation and care.
If a quarantine facility is not found, Solano County and surrounding counties will be charged with caring for these individuals in hospitals and hotels – “seriously burdening their health care delivery systems,” according to state and federal legal filings in U.S. District Court.
Three more passengers tested positive on Sunday and were hospitalized in Solano County hospitals, said the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. There are no imminent plans for a major move from the base, because the results from the estimated 140 tests are still pending.
But the government is bracing for a surge in cases, so is planning for a move.
“There is an urgent need to house these asymptomatic evacuees,” according to the filing. “Time is of the essence in this response to the public health emergency presented by COVID-19: this public health response requires action in hours and days, not days and weeks.”
A hearing is scheduled for 2 p.m. Monday at the federal courthouse in Santa Ana.
As the global epidemic widens, the U.S. will face ongoing threat of new cases.
But most of Angel Island’s quarantine buildings were torn down in the late 1950s. It became a state park. In New York, the facilities at Ellis Island were closed in 1954 and it was turned into a national monument.
“Improved medical practices made lengthy quarantines unnecessary,” according to the California State Parks website.
Meanwhile, rapidly expanding outbreaks of coronavirus in South Korea, Iran and Italy, following those in China and Japan, are raising fears of a coronavirus pandemic on multiple continents.
On Monday, the number of infected Americans has jumped to 53, from 34 on Friday, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control. So far, nearly all involve former passengers on the Diamond Princess cruise ship.
“The CDC does not have quarantine or isolation facilities that can handle more than a few at a time,” said .Polly J. Price, professor of law and global health at Atlanta’s Emory University and an expert on the legal history of quarantines.
The Department of Health and Human Services told the state last week that it would relocate anyone who tested positive for the virus from Travis Air Force Base and Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland in Texas to the Federal Emergency Management Agency Center for Domestic Preparedness in Anniston, Alabama.
But Anniston rebuffed that plan. So it was cancelled on Sunday afternoon by President Donald Trump.
“Anniston is no way equipped to deal with infectious disease control, Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Anniston) said in interviews.
On Monday afternoon, the state and federal government will argue in court that people infected by coronavirus should be moved 431 miles south to Costa Mesa’s 125-acre Fairview Developmental Center, a state-owned facility for people with mental disabilities, which is now empty.
The city’s leaders are blocking the move. Citing fears for residents’ health, they say they were blindsided by the federal plan.
“Our top priority is the safety and security of this community and those who live in this region,” Mayor Katrina Foley said in a statement.
Patients who require hospitalization can be cared for in community hospitals, according to Dr. Eric Toner of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.
“These patients can be cared for in any hospital that is reasonably well prepared,” he said.
“In the near future, as there are more and more cases in the U.S., there will be no choice but for patients to be treated in local community hospitals,” he said. “This speaks to the urgent need for hospitals to get ready. Hospital know how to do this. COVID -19 looks very similar to pandemic influenza. Hospitals must review the guidance and their existing pandemic plan, educate and train their staff, and practice, practice, practice. And they must start today.”
For people with mild disease, recovery time is about two weeks, while people with severe or critical disease recover within three to six weeks, according to a World Health Organization and Chinese team, WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Monday.
The Costa Mesa facility would hold only people who not require hospitalization — and is the only appropriate and suitable state-owned site for infected people, according to the state’s legal filing.
Other facilities — such as the Sonoma Developmental Center, Army National Guard Camp Roberts and closed youth correctional facilities — were considered, then rejected.
The practice of quarantine began during the 14th century in an effort to protect coastal cities from the bubonic plague. Ships arriving from infected ports to Venice, Italy, were required to sit at anchor for 40 days before landing. The word “quarantine” is derived from the Italian words quaranta giorni — which, translated, mean “40 days.”
It’s the most extreme use of government power over people who have committed no crime, according to Emory law scholar Price.
While the U.S. has quarantine “stations” in San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego and 17 other cities, they’re not designed for long-term stays and monitoring.
The proposed facility in Costa Mesa does not pose a threat to residents of the town, the state and federal governments assert in their legal filings.
By refusing to accept the quarantine, Costa Mesa could threaten the health of the rest of the nation, they argue.
“Any act that hinders the ability of federal and state public health authorities to implement these effective, time-tested measures endangers the public health,” they assert, “and, thus, the safety and well-being of the American people.”
