More than 250 passengers from the doomed Grand Princess cruise ship arrived overnight into Dobbins Air Force Base in Georgia where they will spend the next two weeks in quarantine amid fears they may have contracted the deadly coronavirus.
In exclusive pictures obtained by DailyMail.com, the passengers were seen arriving at the air base in the early hours of Wednesday morning after they disembarked the cruise ship off the coast of California Tuesday night.
Most of the people, who less than a week ago were enjoying a carefree holiday, were pictured wearing protective face masks and gloves and were assisted off the plane by personnel wearing hazmat clothing.
The passengers, including 34 Georgia residents, will now be quarantined at the air reserve for 14 days after being potentially exposed to the virus on board the ship.
This comes as the number of cases from the cruise ship rose to 22 on Wednesday, after Canadian officials announced that one resident who had been repatriated from the ship had tested positive for the virus.
In exclusive pictures obtained by DailyMail.com, the passengers were seen arriving at the air base in the early hours of Wednesday morning after they disembarked the cruise ship off the coast of California Tuesday night
Most of the people, who less than a week ago were enjoying a carefree holiday, were pictured stepping off the plane wearing protective face masks and gloves and were assisted off the plane by personnel wearing hazmat clothing
In one video clip from the overnight transportation of US citizens to the Georgia air base, the captain and crew are seen trying to make light of their evacuation.
The group remove their masks and take a selfie together with a member of the medical personnel in full hazmat gear.
The exact number of passengers evacuated from the cruise ship and sent to Dobbins Air Force Base has not been confirmed by officials, but a source said around 271 were being sent to the base.
The source told Channel 2 Cobb County Bureau Chief Chris Jose that two planes were scheduled to carry 271 passengers from the cruise ship to the Marietta air base, about 15 miles northwest of downtown Atlanta.
The first flight, which landed in the early hours of Wednesday, is thought to have contained the 34 Georgians and an unknown number of other passengers.
The Dobbins Air Reserve Base will become home for the roughly 250 passengers for the next two weeks
The passengers will now be quarantined at the air reserve for 14 days after being potentially exposed to the virus on board the ship
The plane is pictured touching down at the air base in the early hours of Wednesday
The exact number of passengers evacuated from the cruise ship and sent to Dobbins Air Force Base has not been confirmed by officials, but a source said around 271 were being sent to the base
A man and woman are pictured leaving the plane after their cruise was cut short following the outbreak
The other flight is bringing the remaining number to the base.
Georgia Governor Brian Kemp had confirmed on Sunday that 34 Georgians and some additional American citizens from the East Coast would be securely transferred to the air base.
While most of the passengers will be subject to a 14-day quarantine at the base, the state has said it plans to take the unusual step of sending the 34 Georgians to their homes where they can self-quarantine there instead.
Authorities have said that none of the individuals transported to the air base have shown symptoms of coronavirus but are being quarantined as a precaution.
Medical staff are pictured in yellow and white hazmat suits: A source said two planes were scheduled to carry 271 passengers from the cruise ship to the Marietta air base, about 15 miles northwest of downtown Atlanta
A man, who looks to be wearing captain uniform and a protective mask, disembarks the plane in the dark
The flight is thought to have contained the 34 Georgians and an unknown number of other passengers
‘Prior to arriving here, the passengers were medically screened by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,’ said a release from the Air Force Reserve
Should individuals test positive for the virus while at the base they will be transported to a nearby hospital for treatment.
‘Prior to arriving here, the passengers were medically screened by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,’ said a release from the Air Force Reserve.
‘The passengers who were asymptomatic were transferred here and other federal military installations for COVID-19 testing and quarantine.’
Officials in Cobb County sought to reassure the local community that the containment of the ship passengers in the area will not pose a risk to the public.
‘We live here with you in this community, so we have same concerns you do and we want to make sure that because you are our neighbors, we want to provide we every possible measure to assure you that we’re working very closely with federal and state governments to take every precaution to address this quarantine situation,’ Cobb Commission Chairman Mike Boyce said in a video statement posted to YouTube on March 8.
Georgia Governor Brian Kemp had confirmed on Sunday that 34 Georgians and some additional American citizens from the East Coast would be securely transferred to the air base
While most of the passengers will be subject to a 14-day quarantine at the base, the state has said it plans to take the unusual step of sending the 34 Georgians to their homes where they can self-quarantine there instead
Authorities have said that none of the individuals transported to the air base have shown symptoms of coronavirus but are being quarantined as a precaution
The exclusive photos show people wearing protective gear as they greet the passengers off the plane
One Georgia resident who has been transported to the air base said in a Facebook post that they took a bus from the ship to the plane which was then taking them onward to the base, according 11 Alive.
Jane Wilson, from Houston County, posted a photo of herself wearing a mask and claimed passengers were all bunched in close proximity to one another on board the bus and said that the screening had merely involved her temperature being taken and someone asking how she felt.
Two passengers and 19 crew members on the Grand Princess tested positive for coronavirus on Friday and the number of cases remained static for days.
But signs are emerging that the number of cases linked to the ship will likely increase, as the Canadian government confirmed Wednesday that a Canadian passenger from the ship had also tested for corornavirus.
The unnamed individual had virtually no symptoms, with just a mild fever and cough, and had been flown back to Canada on a chartered flight before testing positive for the virus, the Public Health Agency of Canada said.
This new case takes the total number of people infected on the cruise ship to 22.
The evacuation process will continue over the coming days as US officials plan to bring the more than 3,000 passengers and crew off the cruise ship.
The passengers sent to Georgia Tuesday night are just some of the near-on a thousand passengers who were evacuated on Tuesday and taken to be placed in quarantine at military bases around the US.
After 407 people, including two hundred Canadians, were evacuated late Monday night, a further 999 were evacuated from the ship throughout Tuesday, bringing the total number of passengers disembarked to 1,406.
The outside of the air base: Local officials have sought to reassure the public that the quarantine will not endanger the community
Two passengers and 19 crew members on the Grand Princess tested positive for coronavirus on Friday. The number of cases from the cruise ship rose to 22 on Wednesday, after Canadian officials announced that one resident who had been repatriated from the ship had tested positive for the virus
Passengers were then loaded onto buses and transported to their barracks where they will reside for the next 14 days
There still remains an estimated 1,015 passengers on board and 1,113 crew members.
Among those who disembarked Monday were the two travelers who tested positive for the coronavirus on Friday. They were taken to hospital alongside their travel companions.
Nineteen crew members had also tested positive Friday but have been deemed ‘asymptomatic’ and remain on the ship in isolated cabins.
The latest case had already been repatriated to Canada before their diagnosis was discovered.
Addressing a news conference on Tuesday in Sacramento, the state capital, Governor Gavin Newsom said he hoped to finish getting all the roughly 2,400 passengers off the ship within 72 hours.
On Tuesday night, 142 Britons were flown back to the United Kingdom but will not be placed into quarantine.
The Grand Princess cruise ship was held off the coast of California after 21 people tested positive for coronavirus Friday
Port workers wearing protective gear work along the portside of the Grand Princess cruise ship in Oakland on Tuesday
Grand Princess cruise ship passengers being screened inside a tent Tuesday in Oakland before boarding a bus that will take them to a military base for quarantine. California Gov. Gavin Newsom hopes to have disembarked the ship within 72 hours
Instead, they will be asked to self-isolate at home and told to only get in touch with the NHS if they fall ill – despite the fact infected patients are highly contagious a week before showing symptoms.
They are expected to land back in the UK on Wednesday morning.
US passengers have been taken to various air force bases across the country where they will remain in quarantine for 14 days.
According to a press release from Princess Cruises on Tuesday, ‘once they disembark, American guests will be transferred to either Travis Air Force Base in Solano County, California; Miramar Marine Corps Air Station in San Diego; Lackland Air Force Base in Bexar County, Texas; or Dobbins Air Reserve Base in Marietta, Georgia’.
The plan was to send California residents to the Travis Air Force base in Fairfield or Marine Corps Air Station Miramar near San Diego, while non-Californians were being flown to Joint Base San Antonio Lackland in Texas or Dobbins Air Force Base in Georgia.
Passengers from the Grand Princess cruise ship, which docked in Oakland, arrive for quarantine at Joint Base San Antonio Lackland in San Antonio, Texas, on Tuesday. This is the third group of quarantined passengers to join the base
Passengers from the Grand Princess cruise ship, which docked in Oakland, arrive Tuesday for quarantine at Joint Base San Antonio Lackland in Texas. The base expects to receive 380 passengers from the cruise ship in the next few hours
Some 1,500 people were evacuated from the ship on Monday, including two dozen people requiring urgent medical care. Pictured, a bus full of American passengers arrives at Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield, California
Travis Air Force in Northern California was expected to welcome 810 Californian passengers in total on Tuesday.
Other American passengers were being driven by bus to take a charter plane from Oakland International Airport where they were then sent to other military bases around the country.
On Tuesday evening, the first passengers were pictured arriving in Joint Base San Antonio Lackland in San Antonio, Texas, for their quarantine.
This is the third set of quarantined visitors to arrive at the base, after it took in 91 citizens repatriated from Wuhan, China, in February and later received 140 passengers from the Diamond Princess Cruise Ship.
The base was expecting to receive about 380 passengers from the Grand Princess.