Health officials Friday confirmed two new cases of the deadly novel coronavirus in California as the number of infections being treated the U.S. climbed sharply with the repatriation of American evacuees from a cruise ship anchored in Japan.

The newest California cases involved a person in Sacramento County and a person in Humboldt county. Sacramento County Public Health Friday confirmed the first travel-related case in an adult county resident who returned from traveling in China on Feb. 2.

“The individual took precautionary measures during travel and has self-quarantined since returning,” Sacramento County’s Department of Health Services said in a statement Friday. “During the quarantine period, the individual began exhibiting mild symptoms.”

The person, whose age and gender they would not reveal, is currently “asymptomatic, but will remain home for mandatory isolation until cleared,” the Sacramento department added.

And Humboldt County officials also confirmed an infection in a recent traveler to China, and added that a “close contact” of that person also has symptoms of the respiratory disease being called COVID-19 and is being tested for the virus.

“Presently, the ill individuals are doing well and self-isolating at home, while being monitored for symptoms,” the Humboldt County Department of Health and Human Services said in a Friday statement.

Heather Muller, a spokeswoman for the Humboldt health department, said “both individuals mentioned in the news release had traveled to mainland China” where the outbreak originated but would not say when, where or provide other details such as their age, gender and relationship.

The latest case comes amid some good news in the see-saw battle to slow the arrival of the disease in the U.S. and the possibility of a global pandemic. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday that “nearly all” of the hundreds of Americans who had been evacuated from China to four military bases including Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield have been released after a 14-day quarantine.

“Someone released from quarantine is not at risk spread of spreading the virus to others,” said Dr. Nancy Messonnier,  director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. “They are not infected.”

In addition, health officials in Santa Clara County and in Snohomish County in the state of Washington confirmed Thursday that two men who had been confirmed with the disease last month have now fully recovered.

The total number of U.S. cases jumped significantly with the U.S. State Department decision this week to evacuate American passengers from the Diamond Princess cruise ship anchored off Japan.

The CDC reported a total of 34 coronavirus cases in the U.S. Those include 11 people who had become sick after returning to the U.S. from traveling in China and two others who lived with and caught the disease from two of those returned travelers.

In addition, three people who were evacuated to the U.S. on State Department chartered flights from the Chinese city of Wuhan at the center of the outbreak have been confirmed infected, as well as 18 others flown back from the Diamond Princess cruise ship.

Of those 18, 11 are receiving care in Nebraska, Messonnier said, while five who were sent to Travis are being treated at nearby hospitals in Northern California, including one in San Francisco. Two others who were taken to Joint Base San Antonio in Lackland, Texas are receiving care at hospitals near there.

Messionnier noted that 10 others from the ship tested positive in Japan but their infections have yet to be confirmed by the CDC.

Messonnier indicated the number of infections is sure to grow, as health officials around the world express growing alarm at the spread of the disease that has infected some 80,000 in more than two dozen countries and killed more than 2,200.

“This represents a tremendous public health threat,” Messonnier said. “There is not a vaccine nor a medication to treat it specifically. We are taking action to reduce the impact on our communities. We are working with the possibility that this will become a pandemic.”

Messonnier stressed that “we never expected we would catch every single traveler from China given the nature of the virus and how it spreads.”

“That,” she added, “would be impossible.”