Plane carrying US virus evacuees lands in California

A chartered flight carrying Americans from a cruise ship quarantined in Japan during the virus crisis landed in California late on Sunday.

Japan's Defense Minister Taro Kono tweeted Monday that Japanese troops helped transport 340 US passengers on 14 buses from Yokohama port to Tokyo's Haneda airport.

About 380 Americans were on the cruise ship.

The US State Department said later that two charter flights carrying cruise ship passengers had departed Tokyo and were on their way to the United States.

The first plane landed in California late Sunday night.

The US said it arranged the evacuation because people on the Diamond Princess were at a high risk of exposure to the virus.

The State Department announced later that 14 of the evacuees received confirmed they had the virus but were allowed to board the flight because they did not have symptoms.

They were being isolated separately from other passengers on the flight, the US State and Health and Human Services said in a joint statement.

The Americans were flown to Travis Air Force Base in California and Lackland Air Force Base in Texas.

After arriving in the US, all of the passengers must go through another 14 days of quarantine - meaning they will have been under quarantine for a total of nearly four weeks.

Other governments, including Canada and Hong Kong, also will require the passengers to undergo a second 14-day quarantine.