More than 240 passengers from a cruise ship hit by the coronavirus have arrived at Dobbins Air Reserve Base in Marietta, and more are on the way, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed Thursday evening.
“Additionally, flights continue transporting Grand Princess cruise ship passengers to military installations in California, Texas and Georgia,” the CDC said in a statement, adding federal health officials are “collaborating with state and local officials, the cruise line, and the Department of Defense to disembark and support these passengers for the required quarantine.”
A second plane carrying the passengers from the Grand Princess ship touched down at Dobbins Thursday morning. The first arrived Wednesday.
So far, 858 passengers have arrived at Travis Air Force Base, 277 at Miramar Naval Air Station; 242 at Dobbins, and 149 at Joint Base San Antonio Lackland in Texas.
Officials have said the passengers will be quarantined at the base for 14 days after they were possibly exposed to the virus.
“At the military installations, passengers also are offered COVID-19 testing,” the CDC said. “Passengers who test positive or who develop flu-like symptoms are transferred to non-DoD locations for the duration of the quarantine; people who develop any type of acute illness will be transferred to hospitals.”
COMPLETE COVERAGE: Coronavirus in Georgia
A total of 21 people aboard the cruise ship have tested positive for the COVID-19 infection, Vice President Mike Pence said Friday during a Coronavirus Task Force press briefing. Of those, 19 were crew members and two were passengers.
Carnival’s Princess Cruises on Thursday became the second cruise line to announce it was shutting down operations due to the global outbreak. The company said it would halt operations of its entire fleet of ships for two months, according to CNBC.
RELATED: 2 major cruise lines to shut down operations for 2 months due to outbreak
The passengers arriving in Georgia are asymptomatic, Dobbins officials said Thursday in a news release.
“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,” officials said. “Quarantined individuals do not show symptoms of illness and are quarantined as a precaution.”
Should any of the quarantined passengers be diagnosed with the COVID-19 disease, procedures are in place to transport them to a hospital in the area.
The CDC is responsible for all aspects of the quarantine operation, and Dobbins personnel will have no contact with the passengers, according to the air reserve base.
Col. Craig McPike, the Dobbins installation commander, said the base’s primary responsibilities remain the same as it provides support to the Department of Health and Human Services, which is the lead federal agency in the operation.
Late Wednesday, Georgia authorities announced the number of confirmed and presumed cases of the infectious disease had risen to 31 across the state. That number continues to change daily.
MORE: Georgia now has 31 presumed and confirmed cases of coronavirus
The state Department of Public Health said there now 12 confirmed cases and 19 presumptive positive cases of the disease, and the source of infection of most of them is unknown.
Of the new cases reported Wednesday, one has a known connection to a case previously confirmed in Floyd County, health officials said. Most of the cases are in metro Atlanta, but several have been reported in more rural parts of the state.
