

A California woman who was evacuated on a US-chartered jet from the coronavirus-stricken Diamond Princess cruise ship said she didn’t know until after landing that others on her plane had tested positive for the bug, according to new reports.
Sara Arana, a social worker from Paso Robles, was among the 300 US citizens allowed off the ship, docked off the Japanese port city of Yokohama, on Sunday and flown back to America on two chartered Boeing 747s, the San Luis Obispo Tribune reported.
Fourteen of her fellow evacuees tested positive for the rapidly spreading illness before they boarded the evacuation flights, US officials have said.
But Arana told CNN’s Kate Bolduan on the “Erin Burnett OutFront” program Monday night that she had no idea anyone on her flight had tested positive until she landed.
“I didn’t hear a single word about that until I literally heard it on the news when we landed,” Arana said. “It was widely being reported everywhere else and we were never informed about that.”
Still, Arana said, she felt at ease on the evacuation flight.
“On the plane we were with specialists … very knowledgeable doctors and CDC professionals,” she told Bolduan. “I have no doubt that they did everything with extreme caution.”
A coronavirus mask and thermometer used during the quarantineFacebookShe added that she’s “not worried about being exposed on the plane.”
“Those are fellow Americans of ours, they deserve to come home,” Arana added, referring to her fellow passengers who had contracted COVID-19.
The 14 passengers who had fallen ill were “moved in the most expeditious and safe manner to a specialized containment area on the evacuation aircraft to isolate them in accordance with standard protocols,” the US State Department and the Department of Health and Human Services said in a joint statement.
They were “isolated from the other passengers” during the flights, officials said.
Seven of those patients arrived at Travis Air Force Base in California — and four of them were taken to health care facilities near the base, Dr. William Walters of the Department of State’s Bureau of Medical Services told CNN.
The other three, along with their spouses, are being treated at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, Walters said.
The seven other afflicted passengers, who initially arrived at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas, are also being treated there, according to Walters.
Arana posted to Facebook Monday that she is under a 14-day quarantine at Travis, where her and others’ health is being monitored.


“They have marked off the area around us with police tape,” she wrote. “I can go outside, just not beyond the tape. It’s almost like living in a murder mystery, I can peer at my neighbors through the windows, but we can’t go near each other. It’s OK. I am so grateful for this monumental effort to bring us back home.”



