14 Americans Evacuated From Cruise Ship In Japan Test Positive For Coronavirus

Now 14 of the 300 Americans who were aboard a cruise ship that was quarantined at sea in Japan have tested positive for the novel Coronavirus.

On Monday, February 17, after disembarking from the Diamond Princess Cruise ship, the group diagnosed with COVID-19 loaded into nine buses on the dock and then boarded charter planes — treated as evacuation aircrafts — from the Tokyo International Airport.

Crew members wore full protective gear while passengers wore face masks, photos show.

The first flight landed at Travis Air Force Base in California, and the second landed at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas. At both locations, infected passengers are being treated for the illness and will remain in quarantine for 14 days.

Moving forward, people who show or develop symptoms in flight will be transported to “an appropriate location for continued isolation and care,” according to the joint statement from the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The Diamond Princess docked at the Japanese port of Yokohama on February 3 and was placed under quarantine two days later after passengers and crew began presenting symptoms of the virus. Since then, at least 454 people on board — including one quarantine officer — have been infected with the novel Coronavirus.

All those infected on the cruise are now receiving treatment, while non-infected passengers have been told to stay in their rooms until the quarantine period ends. The cruise company, meanwhile, has suspended all travel through April 20.

The United States is the first country to evacuate its citizens from the quarantined cruise ship.

As of now, the novel Coronavirus has infected more than 71,000 people around the world — including 1,716 medical workers — most from mainland China. The cruise ship is the largest center of infection outside China. Since December 2019, the death toll has risen to 1,775 and is expected to grow as medical professionals fail to find a vaccine or advanced cure. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the symptoms of the virus are similar to those of pneumonia: coughing fever and difficulty breathing. The World Health Organization has declared the outbreak a global health emergency.

Though the United States has been marked safe amid the outbreak, 15 residents located in Arizona, California, Illinois, Massachusetts, Texas, Washington and Wisconsin have reportedly been diagnosed with the virus. All but two of the cases are linked to travel to Wuhan, China, the city at the center of the seemingly-unstoppable epidemic.