14 Americans Test Positive for Coronavirus After Evacuation from Cruise Ship Quarantine
Fourteen Americans who were evacuated from the quarantined Diamond Princess cruise ship docked in Yokohama, Japan, tested positive for the coronavirus on Sunday.
According to the New York Times and USA Today, the infected passengers were placed in segregated areas on a chartered flight that flew back to the United States. There was a total of 340 Americans on board, and had all been quarantined on the cruise ship in Yokohama for nearly two weeks.
The flight landed Monday morning at Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield, California, both outlets reported. All passengers on board will be placed in a 14-day quarantine.
The U.S. had previously confirmed 15 cases of coronavirus in the country. Now, that number is at 29.
On Feb. 6, Princess Cruises confirmed to PEOPLE that 20 passengers on board the quarantined Diamond Princess cruise ship had tested positive for the illness, including three Americans.
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The total number of cases on the ship, which had 2,666 guests and 1,045 crew members on board, totaled 219, according to CNN and the Washington Post.
Of the previously confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the U.S., seven were in California. The other cases confirmed were in Seattle; Phoenix; Madison, Wisconsin; Chicago and Boston.
However, the CDC emphasizes that Americans should not panic, saying that the risk of contracting coronavirus is still “low,” with the relatively few cases in the U.S.
RELATED VIDEO: Global Efforts Against the Spread of the Coronavirus Continue to Take Place
Worldwide, there are now over 43,000 confirmed cases of this new coronavirus, with the majority occurring in mainland China. As of Feb. 11, 1,018 people have died from the respiratory illness. Most deaths occurred in people over 60 with preexisting conditions, and all but two were in mainland China.
Coronavirus is a blanket term for several respiratory illnesses, ranging from the common cold to more severe viruses such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). Symptoms typically include fever, cough, trouble breathing, headache and sore throat.
For people who have severe cases, it can turn into pneumonia, SARS, kidney failure and death, according to the World Health Organization.
