American cruise ship evacuee tests positive for coronavirus, taken to Napa hospital
Two American evacuees from a cruise ship who arrived at Travis Air Force Base have been hospitalized in Napa; one tested positive for coronavirus and the other had symptoms of the virus, now known as COVID-19, according to a county spokesman and news reports.
The two patients were being treated in isolation at Queen of the Valley Medical Center, Noel Brinkerhoff, a Napa County spokesman, told KCBS Radio on Tuesday evening.
Brinkerhoff said that health officials say there is “minimal risk of exposure” to the public. He also said the two patients were flown from Japan directly to the Air Force base in Fairfield. Then, the two were taken about 30 miles west to the hospital in Napa.
KCBS radio reported that one of the patients initially tested negative for coronavirus but now had symptoms of the new virus that’s been spreading in Asia.
The Associated Press reported Tuesday evening that two patients at the Napa hospital were among among 300 American cruise ship passengers who were quarantined at military bases in California and Texas after they arrived from Japan on charter flights Sunday night and Monday.
The patient who tested positive for the virus in Japan had no symptoms and was placed in isolation at the Napa hospital, according to AP. U.S. officials said evacuation was arranged because people on the Diamond Princess were at high risk of exposure to the coronavirus, cutting short a 14-day quarantine that began Feb. 5 aboard the cruise ship.
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.
A flight carrying U.S. citizens and their families evacuated from the Diamond Princess cruise ship docked in Japan landed at Travis late Sunday.
Government officials said it would fly Americans on the cruise ship who want to return from Japan aboard a chartered flight to Travis or Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, according to a statement from the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
Nearly 350 Americans who fled the coronavirus zone in China ended their 14-day quarantine at California military bases and were cleared to go home Tuesday, according to AP. A group of 180 people at Travis and 166 others at the Marine Corps Air Station Miramar near San Diego, who pose no health risk, were medically cleared to leave, CDC officials said.
This story was originally published February 18, 2020 at 7:12 PM with the headline "American cruise ship evacuee tests positive for coronavirus, taken to Napa hospital."
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