KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Though no one in the Kansas City area has been diagnosed with coronavirus, the outbreak has still impacted some who live in the metro.
Bill McIntosh, a Vietnam War veteran, and his family and friends traveled to Vietnam on on Jan. 26. McIntosh said he wanted to watch the Kansas City Chiefs play in the Super Bowl in the same country where he was stationed in 1970, when the team last won the championship.
He found a deal for the trip on the discount website Groupon, thinking it would be a fun experience.
To get there, he and his family traveled from Kansas City to Los Angeles and then to China before eventually landing in Vietnam.
The family did have some concerns about the layover in China.
"We’re a little concerned about the coronavirus," said John McIntosh, Bill's brother.
However, they came prepared — just in case.
"We've got masks and we got meds, so I think we we'll be okay," John McIntosh said before they left.
But when the group tried to come home after the Super Bowl, they were told they could not leave because they had traveled through China.
On Thursday, they all remained quarantined in Vietnam.
Back in Kansas City, public health officials are keeping an eye on the outbreak. On Thursday, Dr. Rex Archer, director of the KCMO Health Department, updated the city's health board on coronavirus, which originated in Wuhan, China.
Globally, the number of people infected has risen to more than 28,000, and the death toll has surpassed 560, according to The Associated Press.
"We're keeping track of it, because when you have a fire, you don't want it to spread to half the forest before you try to stop it,” Archer said at a news conference. “You want to be able to pick it up early, but that means you got to be prepared and you almost have to be pre-deployed.”
Archer said officials are taking preventative action, such as notifying the Kansas City airport on what to do if there is a case reported in the metro.
"We obviously have had a number of folks that have been in China during this outbreak and have come back, and so we'll be kind of watching," Archer said.
The symptoms of coronavirus are similar to the flu, but health officials say that if you haven’t been in contact with someone from China, there is no need to worry about contracting it.
As for McIntosh and his group, they were told they should be able to leave Vietnam on Feb. 12.
