United States Women's Football Team Airlifted out of Honduras amid Coronavirus
The United States Air Force helped bring a women's tackle football team home Friday after its 55 members had been stranded in Honduras for over a week.
According to TMZ Sports, the United States team flew to Honduras on March 11 to take part in the Americas Women's Bowl, a tournament that also featured Mexico and Costa Rica.
However, the spread of the coronavirus caused major shutdowns worldwide, and government officials in the Central America nation shut down travel.
On Monday, the team's official Facebook account provided an update on the team, noting that it was safe and quarantined in the hotel but unable to leave the country.
"We have contacted the US Embassy and they have been great to ease our minds, unfortunately the US Government does not allot funds in order to get people out of a country," the post said.
It took another few days, but the U.S. State Department eventually helped bring the team home Friday.
Honduras has been relatively isolated from COVID-19, with only 12 confirmed cases through Friday, according to the World Health Organization. There have been over 10,000 cases of the disease in the United States, leading to 150 deaths.
