2nd plane carrying American coronavirus evacuees lands at Texas base
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The second of two State Department-chartered flights carrying additional American evacuees from Wuhan, China – the epicenter of the deadly coronavirus outbreak – has landed at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio to drop off some passengers before it later takes off again for Eppley Airfield in Omaha, Nebraska, to deliver the remaining travelers.
Medical teams in hazmat gear met the passengers at Lackland Air Force Base and could be seen helping to direct them off the plane. It was not clear how many would be quarantined at the base.
The plane arrived at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio just before 1:30 p.m. ET. Some passengers are expected to disembark at the base while others will continue on to Nebraska.
The plane, which was one of two to arrive in the U.S. on Friday, was according to sources briefly held at Travis Air Force Base in California over “persons of interest,” while another plane, that has since landed at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego Calif., was held in Vancouver for the same reasons.
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Two U.S. officials close to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) told Fox News on Friday that the “persons of interest” were one passenger on each flight who had developed possible symptoms of coronavirus. An update on their status was not immediately given.
All passengers will be subject to a 14-day quarantine upon arrival at their destinations. Those who landed at Miramar earlier on Friday join the 167 Americans who arrived last week and have been living in quarantine on base. Five of those individuals have since been taken to two area hospitals after developing possible symptoms of the virus, including two children.
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It was not clear when the plane that landed at Lackland Air Force Base was expected to take off again, but it was estimated that it would carry a remaining 70 passengers to Nebraska. There, they are expected to be quarantined at a nearby Nebraska National Guard training base.
The other plane carrying American evacuees landed at Miramar earlier on Friday.
On Thursday, an official with the federal department told Fox News that the two flights carrying some 300 Americans that were arriving in the U.S. on Friday would likely be the last State Department-chartered flights out of Wuhan.
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“At this time, we do not anticipate staging additional flights beyond those planned to depart February 6,” the spokesperson said, adding any additional U.S. citizens still in China “should attempt to depart by commercial means.”
Some 638 people have died from the pneumonia-like illness, while more than 30,000 people have been sickened worldwide, according to Friday estimates.
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There are 12 confirmed cases of the novel virus in the U.S., the first of which occurred in a Washington State man who has since been released from the hospital. Six other cases have been confirmed in California, as well as one in Wisconsin, one in Arizona, one in Massachusetts and two in Illinois. No deaths have been reported in the U.S., and the large majority of cases still remain in China.
Fox News' Lucas Tomlinson contributed to this report.