American cruise passengers quarantined at US military bases
Published:Monday | February 17, 2020 | 2:48 PM
TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, California (AP) — More than 300 American cruise ship passengers, including 14 who tested positive for Coronavirus, were being quarantined at military bases in California and Texas on Monday after arriving from Japan on charter flights overnight.
One plane carrying cruise passengers touched down at Travis Air Force Base in Northern California just before midnight Sunday, while another arrived at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas early Monday.
The passengers will remain at the bases for two weeks.
Japan’s Defence Minister Taro Kono tweeted earlier that Japanese troops helped transport 340 US passengers on 14 buses from Yokohama port to Tokyo’s Haneda airport.
About 380 Americans were on the cruise ship.
The US said it arranged for the evacuation because people on the Diamond Princess were at a high risk of exposure to the new virus that’s been spreading in Asia.
For the departing Americans, the evacuation cuts short a 14-day quarantine that began aboard the cruise ship on February 5.
The State Department announced later that 14 of the evacuees received confirmation they had the virus but were allowed to board the flight because they had no symptoms.
They were being kept isolated from other passengers on the flight, the US State and Health and Human Services said in a joint statement.
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