The quarantined Diamond Princess cruise ship docked in Yokohama, Japan.
Photo: Jae C. Hong/Associated PressTRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif.—The U.S. government is preparing to evacuate American citizens from aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship, the site of the biggest outbreak of the novel coronavirus outside China, according to an official at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
About 380 Americans and their families on the ship, docked in Yokohama, Japan, will be offered seats on two State Department-organized planes flying back to the U.S., said Henry Walke, director of the CDC’s Division of Preparedness and Emerging Infections, on Friday. They are arriving in the U.S. as early as Sunday, he said.
The cruise ship, which initially had some 3,700 passengers and crew on board, was put under a two-week quarantine on Feb. 5. Since then, the number of confirmed coronavirus cases from the ship has climbed to 218.
A security guard in front of the Diamond Princess cruise ship on Friday.
Photo: charly triballeau/Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesOfficials have attributed the outbreak on the ship to a passenger who got off the cruise in Hong Kong and was later diagnosed with the virus. But it isn’t fully known how so many people got infected.
In China, where the outbreak started, confirmed cases grew to nearly 66,500 by Friday night, according to China’s National Health Commission. More than 1,500 people have died globally, all of them in mainland China except for three. The virus causes a respiratory illness called Covid-19.
A CDC team is on the ground in Japan to assess the health of the cruise ship passengers, Dr. Walke said. Those with a fever, cough or other symptoms won’t be allowed on the flights.
Evacuees will likely arrive first at Travis Air Force Base near Sacramento, Calif., where they will undergo additional health screenings, said Dr. Walke. Some will likely remain at Travis to undergo a mandatory quarantine, which will likely be 14 days, he said. Others may be moved to Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio to quarantine.
Travis is already the quarantine site for roughly 230 people evacuated earlier this month from Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak, and Dr. Walke spoke in a town hall meeting with those people on Friday. These evacuees will be kept separate from the fresh group arriving from the ship, he said.
The current evacuee group from Wuhan is being housed in a hotel on the base, while those from the ship will stay in different lodgings about 200 meters away, he said. Both will have temporary fencing encircling the grounds and U.S. Marshals paroling the perimeter.
“We’re not going to mix anyone,” Dr. Walke said during the Friday meeting, prompting some laughter. “This group is going to stay within this fence. If we take another group, we are putting a fence up over there.”
Write to Shan Li at shan.li@wsj.com
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