14 infected Americans evacuated from coronavirus cruise ship won’t be housed at Travis

A flight carrying U.S. citizens and their families who were extracted from the Diamond Princess cruise ship – which had nearly 300 passengers who have tested positive for the deadly coronavirus, now known as COVID-19 – landed at Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield late Sunday.

Passengers on the flight from Japan will begin a federal 14-day quarantine, Travis AFB Public Affairs said in a statement. Of the 171 passengers quarantined on the base, none “have tested positive for COVID-19 or are symptomatic.”

At least 14 passengers who developed symptoms or tested positive for the virus prior to departure were isolated in flight and were to be transferred to another location for “isolation and care” upon landing, the State Department and Department of Health and Human Services said in a joint statement.

“They will not remain on Travis AFB,” according to the base’s statement.

“Every precaution to ensure proper isolation and community protection measures are being taken,” the statement said. “The safety and security of our Team Travis members and their families remain our highest priority.”

The Diamond Princess passengers join other Americans already evacuated from Wuhan, the Chinese city where the coronavirus outbreak originated.

Previous citizens evacuated from Wuhan have been housed at an on-base hotel at Travis since arriving on Feb. 5, and health officials said that none of the roughly 200 Americans there have been diagnosed with the virus.

“Everyone’s doing just fine, spirits are fine. I think they’re all looking forward to end of quarantine,” said CDC spokesman Jason McDonald, who was at Travis on Saturday morning.

Earlier this week, CDC officials said that five people under quarantine had been hospitalized at Fairfield-area civilian hospitals with symptoms of the virus, but tests showed none had COVID-19.

An estimated 67,000 people have contracted coronavirus as of Saturday, 1,500 of whom have died, including one American, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins University. Roughly 10 percent of those who have contracted the virus have recovered.

CDC and Health and Human Services officials maintain that exposure to the virus in the U.S. remains low. With Sunday’s arrival, 29 people across the U.S. have been identified as carrying the virus – all of whom were under quarantine or self-isolated at home.

This story was originally published February 17, 2020 at 1:28 PM.