Americans Aboard Quarantined Cruise Ship Fly to Back to Texas

SAN ANTONIO, TX – After spending 14 days in quarantine aboard the Diamond Princess to contain the spread of the coronavirus, a group of Americans arrived at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland early Monday morning.

According to KTXS, the Diamond Princess was carrying nearly 3,500 passengers and crew members when it was quarantined. The U.S. decided to evacuate and transport over 300 American passengers who were traveling aboard the cruise ship as they were at high risk of exposure to the virus. 

Japanese troops helped transport 340 U.S. passengers from Yokohama Port to Tokyo's Haneda airport aboard 14 buses. The passengers were then flown to the United States on two charter flights that were destined to land at military bases. The first plane landed at Travis Air Force Base in northern California late Sunday night and the second plane flew to Texas. 

All the passengers who were removed from the ship will be placed in a second quarantine for another 14 days at military facilities. Some of the American passengers aboard the ship opted to forgo the opportunity to fly back to the United States as they didn’t want to undergo a second quarantine.

The Diamond Princess currently has a total of 454 cases of infection, with 99 being added on Monday. Japan overall has 419 confirmed cases and one death. In the United States, there are 15 confirmed cases.