Upon landing Wednesday at MCAS Miramar, four of the 167 passengers aboard a plane carrying quarantined American evacuees from Wuhan, China had to be taken to area hospitals for further evaluation.
Two of those four passengers were Frank Wucinski and his 3-year-old daughter Annabel. They shared their story first with NBC 7 Wednesday evening from an isolated hospital room at Rady Children’s Hospital.
The CDC said the four passengers had fevers or coughs when they landed and required additional screening. Neither of the father-daughter patient pair coughed during our interview, and Wucinski said they didn't seem to have fevers or any other symptoms of coronavirus.
On Friday, a CDC spokesperson confirmed Wucinski and his daughter were released from isolation and sent back to MCAS Miramar to finish their 14-day quarantine.
Wucinski believes he and his daughter were brought to the hospital for screening because his father-in-law in China was diagnosed with the coronavirus.
Wucinski was worried about his daughter's health and was anxious to leave his home in China to reunite with family on the east coast of the U.S.
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“Definitely itching. We were concerned that just over the last week there's been more crackdown on travel,” Wucinski said.
Wucinski shared video of the mostly empty streets in Wuhan on his way to the airport, as well as an eerie photo of his daughter boarding the U.S.-chartered plane that took them back to the states.
During a Skype interview Wednesday night, he also showed off the toys and art supplies the hospital gave his daughter to play with during their stay.
As for Wucinski himself, “I have Netflix. I have work as well."
The two other passengers taken to the hospital were brought to UCSD.
At Miramar, patients are confined to a quarantine facility, protected by U.S. Marshals, where they’re fed three times a day.
