The Department of Homeland Security is taking precautions to help protect the spread of coronavirus into the United States, including securing all the nation's points of entry, not only airports, Acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf said Tuesday.
"From the department's perspective, we are concerned about airports, but we are also looking at maritime ports as well as land ports of entry so folks coming in from Canada and Mexico as well," Wolf told Fox News' "Fox and Friends." "We need to have procedures, and the department does, on all of these ports of entry, not just the airports of entry."
In addition, DHS officials are double-checking histories of people coming in on flights from China, and for individuals who have visited China in the last 14 days, to ensure they haven't been anywhere they are not disclosing, Wolf said.
"President (Donald) Trump really took leadership on this issue and first and foremost we are here to protect the American people," said Wolf. "What we did is we decided to any flights coming from China or anyone who has visited China in the last 14 days, we will funnel those individuals to 11 airports to make sure we have the right medical professionals there. That's what we are doing today."
Once those passengers arrive, they are seen by medical professionals who will determine if some type of quarantine or other procedure is needed, said Wolf.
At that point, the Centers for Disease Control will determine if a government quarantine is needed at a local facility, or if the person can be under a self-imposed house quarantine, such as was used during the Ebola outbreak in recent years.
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