Trading quarantines, Americans from cruise land in US
UAE health authorities confirm new coronavirus case
TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif, Feb 17, (AP): Two charter flights carrying cruise ship passengers from Japan landed at military bases in California and Texas overnight, starting the clock on a quarantine period to ensure passengers don’t have the new virus that’s been spreading in Asia.
A plane carrying American passengers touched down at Travis Air Force Base in Northern California just before 11:30 pm Sunday, local time. A second flight arrived at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas around 2-1/2 hours later, early Monday.
Japan’s Defense Minister Taro Kono had 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 the evacuation because people on the Diamond Princess were at a high risk of exposure to the virus. For the departing Americans, the evacuation cuts short a 14-day quarantine that began aboard the cruise ship Feb 5.
The State Department announced later that 14 of the evacuees received confirmed they had the virus but were allowed to board the flight because they did not have symptoms. They were being isolated separately from other passengers on the flight, the US State and Health and Human Services said in a joint statement.
Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, said Sunday that an infected person who shows minimal symptoms could still pass the virus to someone else.
After arriving in the US, all of the passengers must go through another 14 days of quarantine at the military facilities – meaning they will have been under quarantine for a total of nearly four weeks.
Australia, Canada, Hong Kong and Italy were planning similar flights of passengers. Other governments, including Canada and Hong Kong, also will require the passengers to undergo a second 14-day quarantine.
Japan on Monday announced another 99 infections on the Diamond Princess, raising the ship’s total number of cases to 454. Overall, Japan has 419 confirmed cases of the virus, including one death. The United States has confirmed 15 cases within the country. Separately, one US citizen died in China.
Americans Cheryl and Paul Molesky, a couple from Syracuse, New York, opted to trade one coronavirus quarantine for another, leaving the cruise ship to fly back to the US Cheryl Molesky said the rising number of patients on the ship factored into the decision.
DUBAI: The UAE Ministry of Health and Prevention on Sunday announced a case of infection with the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19), bringing to nine the total number in the country.
The latest case involves a 37-year-old Chinese man who tested positive during a routine checkup conducted as per the World Health Organisation (WHO) standards.
His health condition is now stable, according to a Ministry statement carried by Emirates News Agency (WAM).
This brings to nine the total number of COVID-19 cases diagnosed in the UAE, including the two patients who recovered were recently cleared.