The U.S. State Department announced this weekend that it would send a charter plane to evacuate Americans from a cruise ship anchored at Tokyo, Japan, and quarantined in an effort to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus. When the Americans return to the U.S., they will be housed in isolation for two weeks at one of two military bases: Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland or Travis Air Force Base in California.
The 400 Americans aboard the Diamond Princess received a letter from the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo on Saturday explaining that they would soon be screened for illness, extracted from the ship and then flown back to the U.S.
The letter said that “to fulfill our government’s responsibilities to U.S. citizens under our rules and practices, as well as to reduce the burden on the Japanese healthcare system, the U.S. government recommends, out of an abundance of caution, that U.S. citizens disembark and return to the United States for further monitoring. ”
A joint statement from the Centers for Disease Control and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services explained that these “measures are consistent with the careful policies we have instituted to limit the potential spread of the disease.”
The letter outlined the plan. Aircraft would land on Sunday night. Buses would then move the Americans from the ship to the aircraft. Medical personnel will screen the people, and any “symptomatic passengers” will remain in Japan for treatment.
Medical and public health personnel will monitor the passengers during the two flights across the Pacific and then screen them again upon their arrivals at Travis AFB and at Lackland AFB.
“We understand this is frustrating and an adjustment,” the letter added, “but these measures are consistent with the careful policies we have instituted to limit the potential spread of the disease.”
And, the letter advised, if any Americans choose not to return to the U.S. on the charter flights, “you will be unable to return to the United States for a period of time. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will make a final determination on this matter.”
They would be the second batch of evacuees to JBSA-Lackland. In early February, 91 people with American connections landed at Lackland to begin a two-week quarantine. They came from China’s Hubei Province, the epicenter of the outbreak, and were isolated in a base hotel complex. Their quarantine was slated to end on Feb. 20. One individual from that first group showed signs of sickness and is currently receiving treatment in isolation at Methodist Texsan Hospital.
The HHS/CDC statement explained that this second group would be housed separately from the first group.
CDC spokesman Scott Pauley did not confirm on Saturday exactly how many Americans would be evacuated, when they would leave the cruise ship, when they might arrive in the U.S. or when they would arrive in San Antonio. An additional statement on Sunday explained that any “evacuees who test positive or become symptomatic will be transferred to a suitable off-base facility at the direction of CDC.”
Lackland and Travis Air Force bases are not the only installations designated to help with individuals brought back to the U.S. Fort Carson in Colorado and Marine Corps Air Station-Miramar in California will also house evacuees.
More information about the coronavirus disease is available at the CDC’s Novel Coronavirus 2019 website. Updates for Bexar County residents are available from Metro Health here.
Carson Frame can be reached at Carson@TPR.org and on Twitter at @carson_frame.
Bonnie Petrie and Fernando Ortiz Jr. contributed to this report.
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