Evacuees – Some Who Tested Positive For COVID-19 – Arrive In US
Feb 17, 2020, 6:26 AM | Updated: 10:19 am
Evacuees who had been quarantined in Japan board a plane to the United States. (Photo courtesy of Melanie Haering)
(Photo courtesy of Melanie Haering)
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – Two planes have landed in the United States carrying Americans who had been quarantined for nearly two weeks on a cruise ship in Japan.
Fourteen of the people coming back to the U.S. tested positive for COVID-19 after being evacuated. However, they were still allowed to board because they didn’t show symptoms, officials said. All American citizens who were evacuated will have to undergo an additional two-week quarantine in the United States.
READ MORE: Tooele Man Isolated In Japanese Hospital With Coronavirus
Those on board include four Utahns whose stories KSL TV has been covering since the quarantine began.
Tooele resident Melanie Haering and St. George Resident Mark Jorgensen were both on the flight.
Their spouses, John Haering and Jerri Jorgensen, both tested positive for COVID-19 while on the cruise ship. They remain hospitalized in Japan.
One of the U.S. government-chartered planes landed at Travis Air Force Base in California, and the other landed at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas.
Japanese officials confirmed overnight that 99 additional people who were aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship have tested positive for COVID-19. That brings the total to 454 cases out of the approximately 3,700 people who were on board.
