Two planes carrying hundreds of US citizens from a coronavirus-hit cruise ship have left Japan, officials say.
There were some 400 Americans on board the Diamond Princess. The ship with some 3,700 passengers and crew has been in quarantine since 3 February.
One of the planes has landed at a US Air Force base in California, and people will be quarantined for 14 days.
Meanwhile, China reported a total of 2,048 new cases on Monday – 1,933 of which were from Hubei province.
More than 70,500 people nationwide have already been infected by the virus. In Hubei alone, the official number of cases currently stands at 58,182, with 1,692 deaths. Most new cases and deaths have been reported in Wuhan, Hubei’s largest city.
On Sunday, Japanese officials said the number of infections on the ship had risen by 70 to 355, making it the largest cluster of cases outside China.
At least 40 US citizens who were on board are infected and will be treated in Japan, Dr Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases told Face the Nation on CBS.
Two aircraft chartered by the US government left Tokyo’s Haneda Airport in the early hours of Monday.
More than 300 passengers are being repatriated voluntarily, the US state department said. Fourteen of them tested positive for the virus and were being kept separate from the other passengers, it said.