A group of 39 Coloradans who were passengers aboard the coronavirus-stricken Grand Princess cruise ship are returning to the state on Friday.
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The group was set to arrive by private charter plane at Denver International Airport.
“They will return to their homes via private vehicle or state-provided private van and will continue to self-quarantine until they have been in quarantine for a full 14 days, which includes their time in federal quarantine,” the office of Gov. Jared Polis said in a news release.
A total of 43 Coloradans were on the Grand Princess. The remaining four include two who are set to fly home from Dobbins Air Reserve Base in Atlanta.
The final two “are currently symptomatic at Travis Air Force base and will be returning to Colorado at a later time,” the release said. Travis Air Force base is in California near San Francisco.
The Colorado passengers are from: Aurora, Boulder, Castle Rock, Colorado Springs, Denver, Edwards, Ft. Collins, Greeley, Lakewood, Littleton, Longmont, Loveland, Westminster, Wheatridge and Windsor. The range in age from children under the age of 18 to people in their 80s.
The Grand Princess had been forbidden to dock in San Francisco earlier this month amid evidence the vessel was the breeding ground for a cluster of at least 20 cases, including one death, after a previous voyage. It was forced to idle at sea and wait for authorities to figure out what to do with the vessel.
When it did pull into shore, the 3,5000-passenger ship had at least 21 people who were confirmed to have the virus.
The Grand Princess is now parked in the Port of Oakland.
Another Princess ship, the Diamond Princess, was quarantined for two weeks in Yokohama, Japan, last month because of the virus. Ultimately, about 700 of the 3,700 people aboard became infected in what experts pronounced a public health failure, with the vessel essentially becoming a floating germ factory.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.