US base workers involved in coronavirus quarantine face harassment: report

Workers at an Air Force Reserve base in California where a group of Americans are under quarantine after being evacuated from China say they are facing unnecessary harassment from the nearby public due to coronavirus fears.

NBC News reported Monday that workers at the March Air Reserve Base in Riverside County, Calif., say they have been “accosted in uniform” by members of the public and subjected to “hurtful” statements in recent days.

“This is not acceptable, and needs to stop,” read a letter from base officials to county residents obtained by NBC.

“You do not need to exclude household or family members of [March Air Reserve Base] personnel, nor do you need to require them to obtain unnecessary ‘clearance letters’ from a physician or health authority,” it continued, adding that those who work on the base have had no exposure to those in quarantine.

No civilians, base workers or service members at the facility have tested positive for the new deadly form of coronavirus which has seen a large-scale outbreak in China and sickened a handful of Americans.

The total number of deaths in China related to the disease crossed 1,000 on Monday according to Chinese officials, while the total number sickened stretched into the thousands.

The virus, which officials believe originated at a “wet” seafood and animal market in the Wuhan province, presents in victims as a sometimes-deadly form of pneumonia.