Joint Base McGuire Dix Lakehurst to quarantine people with coronavirus

The Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst said it will house up to 20 individuals who may have been exposed to the coronavirus, if needed, in a stand alone building at the base’s Doughboy Inn.

This comes as a directive from the Department of Defense and Secretary of Defense Dr. Mark T. Esper who named 11 locations within a vicinity of a major airport across the United States on Thursday that could house passengers if Department of Health and Human Service facilities become filled to capacity.

Under the request, the DOD is asking for support at each location.

The housing will be limited for up to 20 people as they undergo a period of quarantined observation.

DOD Officials said that they will also provide office space for several HHS personnel and their equipment through February 22, 2020.

JBMDL and the 10 others on the list just have to provide the extra space should it be needed while HHS will be responsible for all care, transportation, and security of the people in need of being quarantined.

The DOD says that their personnel or those at JBMDL will have direct contact with the evacuees but will minimize contact with personnel supporting the evacuees.

"JBMDL’s only role is to provide support by lodging incoming passengers for observation, specifically any passengers identified for quarantine arriving to Newark International Airport, New Jersey," Joint Base McGuire Dix Lakehurst Officials said in a statement. "They will be housed for up to 14 days in a stand-alone building at the Doughboy Inn on JBMDL to be assessed for symptoms by HHS and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention personnel."

If someone who comes to the Base for an evaluation shows signs of being infected, they will be brought to an off-base medical facility for a full medical evaluation, treatment, and isolation.

It'll be up to CDC personnel to follow procedures to ensure proper sanitary/protection measures are taken when interacting with quarantined individuals to avoid any spread of potential contamination.

"A safety cordon will be established to ensure the JBMDL mission can safely continue, the privacy of the passengers can be assured, and to protect the health and welfare of our community," JBMDL officials said.

While JBMDL addresses possible coronavirus patients, they said that no other individuals are staying at the Doughboy Inn.

"Military personnel who would have normally used the Doughboy Inn, will be accommodated in other lodging facilities on base or will be able to receive non-availability letters that assure they are reimbursed at the proper rate for off-base lodging."

For up-to-date information on 2019-nCoV, there is a link on the upper right of the Ocean County Health Department website that leads you to the NJ-DOH nCoV page.

You can also find additional information with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website or the New Jersey Department of Health website.

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