Passengers from a coronavirus-infected cruise ship may be quarantined at Camp Roberts
Update 11:30 a.m.:
The San Luis Obispo County Public Health Department says Camp Roberts will likely not host a quarantine of the Diamond Princess cruise ship passengers. For more information, read our story here >> Passengers from coronavirus-infected cruise probably won’t be quarantined at Camp Roberts
Update, Feb. 17, 1 a.m.:
The first of two planes carrying Americans evacuated from the Diamond Princess cruise ship has arrived at Travis Air Force Base, according to various media reports.
CBSN Bay Area reported that a chartered flight carrying evacuees landed at the base sometime after 11:20 p.m. Sunday. CNN reported a second is scheduled to arrive early Monday morning at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland in San Antonio, Texas.
Meanwhile the State Department has confirmed that 14 individuals who tested positive for COVID-19 were included in the evacuation, according to a statement released early Monday morning.
According to the statement, those individuals were moved to a specialized containment area on the evacuation aircraft to isolate them, per standard protocols.
Those who tested positive were asymptomatic, according to the statement.
All 300 evacuated individuals are expected to deplane at either Travis Air Force Base of Joint Base San Antonio, and the uninfected will remain under quarantine for 14 days. Passengers who tested positive and any that developed symptoms during the flight will be transported to “an appropriate location for continued isolation and care,” according to the statement.
It is still unknown if any of the passengers will be quarantined at Camp Roberts in San Luis Obispo County.
Paso Robles social worker Sarah Arana, who was among the passengers quarantined on the ship and then evacuated, wrote in a Facebook post just before midnight that her plane had landed at Travis Air Force Base, but passengers were not yet allowed to disembark. Arana said the Center for Disease Control and other officials were expected to be at the base to process the evacuees.
“What an amazing journey,” she wrote. “I have no idea where they will send me from here and I’m told we don’t get a choice. But it doesn’t even matter. I am back home. My heart is bursting. I am ready for the next phase of this journey and whatever magic it holds.”
Original story:
Passengers quarantined on a cruise ship in Japan for two weeks due to a novel coronavirus outbreak could be housed at Camp Roberts, according to San Luis Obispo County public health officials.
The Diamond Princess cruise ship — which took more than 2,600 travelers on a two-week cruise from Japan to Southeast Asia — has housed quarantined passengers in the port of Yokohama since late January.
A Hong Kong passenger who sailed on the ship for five days tested positive for the virus, also known as COVID-19, after he returned home, prompting the quarantine.
After about 12 days aboard the ship, government officials said American citizens on the cruise ship who want to return from Japan could fly back to the United States aboard a chartered flight to Travis Air Force Base or Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, according to a U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention statement Saturday.
The U.S. State Department, through the embassy in Tokyo, informed passengers that it would be chartering the flight for Sunday.
Camp Roberts quarantine?
Some passengers may be taken to Camp Roberts, an Army National Guard base in San Luis Obispo and Monterey counties, according to a San Luis Obispo County Public Health Department news release.
Passengers who test positive for COVID-19 but no longer require hospitalization would be housed at the base for the rest of their isolation period, the release says.
“We understand that a federal team will provide the staffing, food, and medical care at Camp Roberts,” county Health Officer Dr. Penny Borenstein said. “The county of San Luis Obispo Public Health Department is working to ensure that we protect the health and well-being of San Luis Obispo County residents.”
There are currently no local cases of COVID-19, and there’s a low risk residents will contract the disease, the release says.
Monterey County Supervisor Chris Lopez said in a Facebook post he’s aware cruise ship passengers could be brought to Camp Roberts and has been coordinating with San Luis Obispo County officials.
“I have been in communication with Supervisor John Peschong to make sure we work together to keep you up to date on any information that develops,” Lopez wrote.
Sarah Arana, a Paso Robles medical social worker, was among the passengers quarantined on the ship. Her last Facebook post at 2 a.m. on Sunday indicated she was getting ready to leave the ship and board a military flight to California.
“Everyone here is pretty emotional not knowing exactly what to expect tomorrow,” Arana wrote. “Another day, another journey. Here I go again.”
Quarantine protocol
Travelers would be screened prior to leaving the ship, on the flight and again upon arrival, according to health officials. Those people would then be quarantined for 14 days in units separate from the other Americans already evacuated from Wuhan, the Chinese city where the coronavirus outbreak originated.
Previous citizens evacuated from Wuhan have been housed at an on-base hotel at Travis since arriving on Feb. 5, and health officials said that none of the roughly 200 Americans there have been diagnosed with the virus.
“Everyone’s doing just fine. Spirits are fine. I think they’re all looking forward to end of quarantine,” said CDC spokesman Jason McDonald, who was at Travis on Saturday morning.
Earlier this week, CDC officials said that five people under quarantine had been hospitalized at Fairfield-area civilian hospitals with symptoms of the virus, but tests showed none had COVID-19.
“You keep them separate because the ones locally have gone a certain amount of time without being exposed,” McDonald said. “It’s just wise and prudent to put a new batch of those who may have had exposure in a separate group so the original group wouldn’t have a new exposure.”
This story was originally published February 16, 2020 at 6:18 PM.
