Coronavirus News: U.S. Workers Fighting Disease Face Harassment From The Public

Workers at a U.S. Air Force Reserve base in California say they are facing harassment due to the presence of coronavirus patients under quarantine at the base. NBC News reported, workers from the base in Riverside County report being “accosted” by members of the public while in uniform due to coronavirus fears.

“This is not acceptable, and needs to stop,” a letter from March Air Reserve Base officials said. “You do not need to exclude household or family members of [base] personnel, nor do you need to require them to obtain unnecessary 'clearance letters' from a physician or health authority.”

There were 195 Americans being held at the Riverside base while serving a mandatory 14-day quarantine after being evacuated from Wuhan, China, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak. The American citizens and their families were evacuated on Jan. 28, and since then, none has tested positive for the disease. Two children being held developed fevers, but coronavirus tests for them came back negative.

The quarantine lifted Tuesday morning and the evacuees were scheduled to be screened one last time before release. All being held were expected to be found healthy.

The coronavirus death toll passed 1,000 in China on Monday. As of Tuesday morning, there were 43,101 confirmed cases worldwide, 42,708 of of them in China.