SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — An airplane evacuating as many as 240 Americans from a Chinese city at the center of a virus outbreak departed Wednesday before dawn, and is en route to the U.S., a U.S. State Department official has told The Associated Press

The U.S. government chartered the plane to fly out diplomats from the U.S. Consulate in Wuhan, where the latest coronavirus outbreak started, and other U.S. citizens. The plane will make a refueling stop in Alaska before flying on to Ontario, California, the U.S. Embassy in China has said.

Wuhan is the epicenter of a new virus that has sickened thousands and killed more than 100 and the official said Tuesday that the plane left the city before dawn Wednesday, China time. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to speak publicly.

When the plane arrives in Anchorage, Alaska, passengers will clear customs and go through the Centers for Disease Control screening.

“Then they will put them back on the plane and then send them on to their final destination,” said Jim Szczesniak, manager of the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport. He didn’t know how long it would take beyond “hours.”

The passengers are being isolated in the airport’s international terminal, which lies mostly dormant in the winter months.

Szczesniak stressed the terminal is not connected to the larger and heavily used domestic flights terminal, and each has separate ventilation systems.

The lobby in the international terminal was nearly empty Tuesday afternoon, and an airport employee was seen jogging through though the facility that has closed counters for companies like Korean Air, China Airlines and Asiana Airlines. There are two businesses operating at either end of the ticket coutners, a 4x4 rental agency and a satellite office of the Alaska Division of Motor Vehicles.

Because the terminal is only active in the summer, it allows the airport to practice situations such as this one.

“In the winter time, we have the ability and the luxury of not having any passenger traffic over there, so it’s a perfect area for us to handle this kind of flight,” he said.

Officials at the California airport 35 miles (56 kilometers) east of Los Angeles have been readying facilities to receive and screen the repatriates and temporarily house them for up to two weeks — if the Centers for Disease Control determines that is necessary, said David Wert, spokesman for the county of San Bernardino.

“We're preparing for that eventuality just in case,” Wert said.

Symptoms of the virus include fever, cough, and in more severe cases shortness of breath or pneumonia.

China has cut off access to Wuhan and 16 other cities in Hubei province to prevent people from leaving and spreading the virus further. In addition to the United States, countries including Japan and South Korea have also planned evacuations.

Ontario International Airport was designated about a decade ago by the U.S. government to receive repatriated Americans in case of an emergency overseas, Wert said.

Airport personnel have trained for such an occasion. The repatriation from China would be the first time the airport is used for this purpose, he said.

Passengers will be screened again once they arrive in Ontario, California. The area where passengers will be taken is removed from passenger terminals and other public areas at the airport, the county said.

Associated Press news editor Mark Thiessen in Anchorage, Alaska, contributed to this report. Lee reported from Washington.

Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed., source Associated Press News