People evacuated from China arrive in San Antonio on February 7, to be quarantined at the Lackland Air Force Base. Billy Calzada/The San Antonio Express-News/AP

A request by the US city of San Antonio for a restraining order to keep Diamond Princess cruise ship evacuees in quarantine has been denied by a federal judge.

The evacuees are currently being held at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas.

“The Surgeon General of the United States and the Secretary of Health and Human Services are authorized to make and enforce such regulations as in their judgment are necessary to prevent the transmission or spread of communicable diseases," US district judge Xavier Rodriguez said in his decision late Monday.

According to Rodriguez, the evacuees had successfully passed two coronavirus tests, 24 hours apart, and had been in quarantine for two weeks.

"This court has no authority to second-guess those determinations even though the court also shares the concerns expressed by the plaintiffs,” the judge said.

Over 700 cases of the novel coronavirus have been linked to the Diamond Princess cruise ship, which was quarantined in Yokohama, Japan for two weeks in February.

CNN spoke to evacuees at the Lackland Air Force Base, who were frustrated by the delay in letting them out of quarantine.