Flying 27,000 feet above the Pacific, hundreds of American evacuees from the Diamond Princess coronavirus cruise ship sped toward the U.S. on State Department charter flights late on Sunday night.
Two planes filled with the coronavirus evacuees are set to land on American soil in the early hours of Monday, one at Travis AFB in California and one at Kelly AFB in Texas.
After remaining in isolation aboard the Diamond Princess since the beginning of the ship’s outbreak on February 3, the weary evacuees will spend another 14 days under military quarantine at the two bases, which are among 11 designated by the Pentagon for isolation of potential coronavirus cases.
Taking no chances, U.S. officials installed what appeared to be portable bio-containment units on board the two windowless 747 cargo jets.
The 44 Americans from the Diamond Princess who tested positive for coronavirus were required to remain in Japan for treatment, and it’s possible the isolation units were in place to quarantine any passenger who became symptomatic during the nine to twelve hour flights.
Taking no chances, U.S. officials installed what appeared to be portable bio-containment units on board the two windowless 747 cargo jets that are evacuating Americans from the Diamond Princess in Japan
It is believed the isolation units were in place to quarantine any passenger who became symptomatic during the flights
Nearly 400 Americans decided to abandon ship and take the government charter flights back to the US, where they will be under additional quarantine on two military bases for another 14 days
Passengers who were aboard the quarantined cruise ship the Diamond Princess prepare to get on an airplane chartered by the U.S. government at Haneda Airport in Tokyo Monday
The Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the transport and care of patients under coronavirus quarantine, did not immediately respond to an inquiry from DailyMail.com about the purpose of the units.
‘On cargo plane. You cannot Imagine. Crazy or worst dream ever,’ wrote American evacuee Gay Courter on Facebook after boarding one of the flights at Tokyo International Airport.
‘Huge windowless B-747 cargo plane with some seats bolted in. Destination unknown at this time,’ her husband Philip wrote.
Americans from the Diamond Princess who did not show symptoms were not required to board the evacuation flights, and some refused, furious that they would have to spend another 14 days in military quarantine just as the cruise ship quarantine was set to be lifted on February 19.
‘My health is fine. And my two-week quarantine is almost over. Why would I want to be put on a bus and a plane with other people they think may be infected when I have spent nearly two weeks isolated from those people?’ tweeted Matt Smith, an American lawyer on the ship with his wife.
He described a fellow American passenger standing on her balcony chanting ‘USA, USA’ as buses arrived to collect them.
‘Of course, in contravention of the rules of quarantine, she’s not wearing a face mask, and she’s talking with a passenger on the adjacent balcony… And you wanted me to get on a bus with her?’
Buses carrying U.S. passengers who were aboard the quarantined cruise ship the Diamond Princess, seen in background, leaves Yokohama port, near Tokyo, early Monday. The cruise ship was carrying nearly 3,500 passengers and crew members
U.S. passengers from the Diamond Princess are seen on charter buses taking them to Haneda Airport on Monday
A bus carrying U.S. passengers who were aboard the quarantined cruise ship the Diamond Princess arrives at Haneda airport in Tokyo, before the passengers board a Kalitta airplane chartered by the U.S. government
An airplane chartered by the U.S. government takes off at Haneda airport in Tokyo with Americans tourists who were aboard the quarantined cruise ship the Diamond Princess docked at Yokohama
Kalitta Air 585 is seen above the Pacific at 7.45pm PST on Sunday. It is due to land at Travis AFB at 10.47pm PST
Kalitta Air 581 is seen above the Pacific at 7.45pm PST on Sunday, bound for Kelly AFB in Texas
However, the State Department warned that anyone from the Diamond Princess who did not take the evacuation flights would be ‘unable to return for the United States for a period of time’ determined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Other nations are preparing to follow suit in removing their citizens from the Diamond Princess, as global concerns grow over the spread of coronavirus and the death toll at its Chinese epicenter tops 1,700.
More than 70,500 have been infected across China by the COVID-19 virus as the world battles to contain the outbreak that has sparked panic buying and jitters over the global economic impact.
Outside China, the biggest cluster of infections is on the Diamond Princess cruise ship off Yokohama, where coronavirus cases have climbed quickly to 355 despite passengers being confined to their cabins during a 14-day quarantine.
And amid growing criticism of Japan’s handling of the ship, governments are scrambling to repatriate their citizens, with Canada, Australia, Italy, Israel and Hong Kong poised to follow Washington’s lead.
Those Americans who chose to leave the Diamond Princess are seen in a chartered evacuation aircraft to fly back to the US
Phil Courter, a U.S. passenger on board the Diamond Princess cruise ship, wears a face mask on a chartered evacuation aircraft to fly back to the United States, at Haneda airport in Japan
Health officials in protective suits are seen ferrying passengers to board the evacuation flights in Tokyo
In the early hours of Monday morning, a convoy of buses driven by people in head-to-toe protective suits removed American passengers from the ship after a makeshift passport control.
There were no health checks at that point, said US passenger Sarah Arana, a 52-year-old medical social worker, who said the US government should have acted ‘much sooner, at the beginning.’
‘I am happy and ready to go,’ Arana told AFP before leaving the ship. ‘We need a proper quarantine. This was not it.’
The US embassy in Japan confirmed two jets had left Japan en route to the US. Those on board were expected to undergo a further 14-day quarantine period on US soil.
In China, authorities have placed about 56 million people in Hubei and its capital Wuhan under quarantine, virtually sealing off the province from the rest of the country in an unprecedented effort to contain the virus.
New cases outside the epicentre have been declining for the last thirteen days. There were 115 fresh cases outside the central province — sharply down from nearly 450 a week ago.
Chinese authorities have pointed to the slowing rise in cases as proof their measures are working to stem the spread, even as the death toll climbed to 1,770.
But World Health Organization head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has warned it is ‘impossible to predict which direction this epidemic will take’.
A group of ambulances stage at the visitor center at Travis Air Force Base in California, where one of the flights will land
Medical personal were on hand at Travis AFB Sunday preparing to put the 14-day quarantine into effect
And concerns remain about the global transmission, especially on cruise ships which appear to have become especially virulent breeding grounds.
Fears are growing for passengers on the Westerdam cruise ship, who all received a clean bill of health when they disembarked in Cambodia — a staunch ally of Beijing.
One of the passengers was stopped by authorities in Malaysia over the weekend when she was detected with a fever and later diagnosed with the virus. There were more than 2,200 passengers and crew on the ship when it docked in Sihanoukville, many of whom have now dispersed around the globe.
With tourism battered and global supply chains disrupted by the virus, experts are fretting about the toll it could take on a fragile global economy.
IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva said there could be a cut of around 0.1-0.2 percentage points to global growth but stressed there was ‘still a great deal of uncertainty.’
Japan, one of the hardest-hit countries outside China irrespective of the Diamond Princess, suffered its biggest economic slump in more than five years — even before the coronavirus crisis.
Gross domestic product in the world’s third-top economy shrank an eye-watering 1.6 percent in the three months to December — a much bigger contraction than economists had feared.