SAN ANTONIO – The last of the quarantined evacuees from the Grand Princess cruise ship were released from their two-week, federally mandated quarantine at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland on Wednesday, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services officials said.
Since February, the base has been used to house 387 American citizens who were evacuated from Wuhan, China, and from two cruise ships -- the Diamond Princess from Japan, and the Grand Princess, which docked in California.
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About 100 evacuees all ended their quarantine this week. Twenty people were released Monday, 75 were released on Tuesday and the remaining seven departed Wednesday morning, according to an HHS spokesperson.
Fifteen of the quarantined evacuees tested positive for COVID-19 while in San Antonio, including one of the Wuhan evacuees, nine of the Diamond Princess evacuees and five of the Grand Princess evacuees. An HHS spokesperson said all have now been medically cleared and released from quarantine.
COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the new virus, stands for coronavirus disease 2019. The disease first appeared in late 2019 in Wuhan, China, but spread around the world in early 2020, causing the World Health Organization to declare a pandemic in March.
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