A chartered plane said to be carrying around 200 American consulate personnel and citizens from an area of China that has been at the center of a coronavirus outbreak landed at an airport in Anchorage, Alaska, Tuesday night, an official said.
The plane was seen landing at Ted Stevens International Airport at around 9:30 p.m. Anchorage time. It appeared from video that some of those on the ground were wearing protective suits, gloves and masks.
Clinton Bennett, communications director for the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services, confirmed that the plane has landed at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport.
The plane is bound for Southern California, but it stopped at Ted Stevens International Airport North Terminal for refueling, Alaska health officials have said. That section of the airport is not accessible to the public.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that the U.S. government was relocating around 210 U.S. citizens from Wuhan, which is the city at the epicenter of the outbreak.
The State Department said earlier Tuesday that the charter plane from Wuhan left with U.S. personnel from the U.S. consulate as well as private American citizens on board.
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Those aboard were to be screened before the plane left China, monitored during the duration of the flight, screened again in Anchorage, and evaluated again after the plane lands in Southern California, the CDC said. They will also be monitored for symptoms after that.
The plane had been scheduled to arrive at the airport in the city of Ontario, California, which was designated by the federal government as the official repatriation center for California about a decade ago, San Bernardino County has said.
But Tuesday night officials in Ontario, which is east of Los Angeles, said in a statement that the CDC informed it that the plane would instead be diverted to March Air Reserve Base, which is to the southeast in Riverside County.
The news comes as British Airways said it was stopping all flights to China. "We have suspended all flights to and from mainland China with immediate effect following advice from the Foreign Office against all but essential travel," it said in an emailed statement.
"We apologise to customers for the inconvenience, but the safety of our customers and crew is always our priority."
The deadly coronavirus is known as 2019-nCoV, or novel coronavirus.
Chinese health authorities said that as of late Tuesday local time there have been 5,974 confirmed cases in that country, and 132 people have died. There were 9,239 suspected cases in the country.
So far 56 cases have been confirmed in 14 other countries, according to a World Health Organization status report earlier Tuesday.
Five people in the U.S. have tested positive for the virus, according to the CDC. All of those were people who traveled from Wuhan and they are in isolation. The CDC says that the immediate risk in the U.S. is low.
Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said at a news conference Tuesday that it is a fast-moving and constantly changing situation and potentially a serious public health threat.
"But at this point, Americans should not worry for their own safety,” Azar said.
China has cut off access to Wuhan and 16 other cities in Hubei province to prevent people from leaving and spreading the virus further, The Associated Press reported.
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Plane carrying Americans from coronavirus-hit China lands in Alaska - NBC News
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