14 among 300 US plane evacuees from Japan positive for Covid-19

The passengers boarding a Kalitta airplane chartered by the US government Monday, Feb. 17, 2020. - AP

WASHINGTON (AFP): Fourteen people who had tested positive for the new coronavirus were among the more than 300 US citizens and family members evacuated by plane from a quarantined ship in Japan, the US State Department said Monday (Feb 17).

The passengers had already disembarked from the Diamond Princess and were preparing to return to the United States on chartered aircraft when US officials were informed 14 of them who had been tested days earlier were positive for Covid-19, it said in a joint statement with the Department of Health and Human Services.