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2nd group of cruise ship passengers arrives at MCAS Miramar for 2-week coronavirus quarantine

The total number of passengers aboard the chartered Boeing 737 was estimated at 118 and the group joined 42 passengers who arrived at the base on Tuesday.

SAN DIEGO — A second group of passengers from the Grand Princess cruise ship in Oakland arrived at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar late Wednesday afternoon to begin a 14-day quarantine period at the base.

The total number of passengers aboard the chartered Boeing 737 was estimated at 118 and the group joined 42 passengers who arrived at the base on Tuesday.

More than 1,000 people on the cruise ship -- on which at least 21 people tested positive for novel coronavirus -- disembarked Tuesday, with another 407 disembarking Monday.



The ship, which had roughly 3,500 people aboard -- at least 900 of them Californians -- was held off the coast of Northern California before it was allowed to dock in Oakland on Monday.

Tuesday's group of 42 Southern California residents who were aboard the ship arrived at MCAS Miramar around 9:30 p.m. on a flight from Oakland to begin a 14-day quarantine, during which they will be monitored to determine if they develop any symptoms.

Col. Charles Dockery, commanding officer MCAS Miramar, sent a letter to Marines, sailors and their families.

"The broad concept of our support will be the same as our previous efforts," he wrote. "As with the previous mission, all passengers entering quarantine will have been deemed asymptomatic by health care professionals. Passengers will remain quarantined throughout the 14-day period and there will be no contact with DOD personnel."

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While some of the California residents will be housed at Miramar, others will be held at Travis Air Force Base northeast of Oakland.

Cruise ship passengers who are residents of other states are expected to be taken to Joint Base San Antonio Lackland in Texas or Dobbins Air Force Base in Georgia.

This will be the second time Miramar has been used as a quarantine facility due to the coronavirus. More than 200 people who were evacuated from Wuhan, China -- the epicenter of the outbreak -- were housed at the facility last month. Two of those people eventually tested positive for the virus, but they were hospitalized and have since recovered and been released.

The World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a "pandemic" earlier today due to its worldwide reach and impact.

On Monday, San Diego County health officials confirmed the county's first presumptive positive case of coronavirus in a local resident, who is being treated at Scripps Green Hospital.

The case is considered a presumptive positive until test results are confirmed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Scripps has taken precautionary measures and sent any staff who may have been exposed to the illness to home quarantine with hospital support.

"Scripps Green Hospital and the adjacent Scripps Clinic Torrey Pines are safe for patient care and all appointments and procedures are continuing as usual at both facilities," according to a hospital statement.

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Dr. Wilma Wooten, the county's health officer, said the patient is a woman in her 50s, and the infection is related to "overseas travel." County officials did not specify what country the patient had visited, but the location did not subject her to automatic 14-day quarantine when she returned -- an indication she did not travel to high-danger countries such as China or Italy.

Wooten said the patient is hospitalized and "doing well." She said health officials are continuing to investigate to determine who may have come into contact with the woman.

Dr. Eric McDonald of the county's Epidemiology Immunization Branch said there is a "household contact," and that person is under a self- quarantine, and some health care workers may have been exposed. McDonald said the patient became sick and was hospitalized, and eventually met the criteria to be tested for coronavirus, leading to the positive result.

He said there is not believed to have been any contact with the "general public."

Although the patient is considered the county's first coronavirus case, the illness has had a presence in the San Diego area. Last week, authorities confirmed that a person who works at an AT&T retail store in Chula Vista had tested positive for the illness, prompting the temporary closure of some AT&T stores in the area. That patient was not considered a San Diego County case because the person actually lives in Orange County.

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