Question: Regarding the virus spreading from China, are Hawaii airports screening incoming passengers for it?
Answer: Not as part of the special screenings that began last week. Hawaii airports don’t have direct flights from Wuhan, the city in central China (Hubei province) where the outbreak of a new type of coronavirus was detected, afflicting hundreds of people in that country. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is focused on flights from that region, although it’s also trying to keep the one confirmed U.S. case (in Washington state) from spreading.
On Tuesday the CDC announced that all passengers on direct or connecting flights from Wuhan to the United States would be funneled through one of five U.S. airports conducting entry screenings. The health checks began Friday at San Francisco (SFO), New York (JFK) and Los Angeles (LAX) airports, and expand this week to Atlanta (ATL) and Chicago (ORD).
“Together, the five airports will cover all travelers arriving in the United States whose travel originated from Wuhan, China,” the CDC said.
On arrival, travelers from Wuhan might have their temperature taken and fill out a health survey. Travelers with signs of illness (fever, cough or trouble breathing) will be checked further, the CDC said (808ne.ws/travelnotice).
The CDC also confirmed Tuesday that the virus has reached the U.S. A Washington state resident returned from Wuhan on Jan. 15, sought medical treatment and underwent rapid testing that confirmed the virus, it said.
Health officials are trying to determine whether that patient, who has recovered, infected anyone else. They now think the virus can spread from person to person. Transmission originally was thought to be from animal to person, because initial patients in China had been to a large seafood and animal market.
Given that the virus has reached the West Coast, Kokua Line asked the CDC whether public health entry screenings would expand to more airports, including in Hawaii. We did not hear back by deadline.
The Honolulu airport is one of 20 U.S. airports with a CDC quarantine station and responsibility for enforcing foreign quarantine regulations. Read more at 808ne.ws/hnlcdc.
The CDC considers the Wuhan outbreak a serious public health concern but says that the immediate health risk to the general American public remains low, according to the update at 808ne.ws/cdcsum.
Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses, some causing respiratory illness in people and others in animals. Rarely, animal coronaviruses evolve and infect people and then spread between people. How exactly this new virus is spreading remains unclear. While some patients in China became severely ill (and a few died), others recovered after mild symptoms.
Other countries also are screening incoming travelers from Wuhan and have confirmed cases, including in Thailand, Japan and Korea.
Q: I don’t get the rubbish cart from the city; gotta supply my own. What size limit?
A: Oahu homes on the manual garbage collection routes should supply their own 35-gallon containers, according to the city Department of Environmental Services.
Customers on the manual routes have their garbage picked up twice a week. Both days are for mixed waste; they don’t sort their refuse into trash (gray cart), yard trimmings (green cart) and recyclables (blue cart), as customers on the automated collection routes do.
Mahalo
In my desperate struggle getting out of a compact parking stall at POB II, a good Samaritan appeared and guided me out. I am beyond grateful to her. May she be blessed eternally. — Senior driver
Write to Kokua Line at Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 7 Waterfront Plaza, Suite 210, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Honolulu 96813; call 529-4773; fax 529-4750; or email kokualine@staradvertiser.com.
