The U.S. State Department said it plans to evacuate its staff and some private citizens out of the Chinese city of Wuhan — the epicenter of the growing coronavirus outbreak — on a flight to Ontario, California.

The original plan was for the plane to land in San Francisco, but the flight will instead be routed to Southern California.

State department officials said Monday in a statement that the the flight to Ontario, California, is expected to leave Wuhan on Wednesday morning local time. Priority will be given to citizens who are most at risk of contracting the virus.

The flight is expected to make a refueling stop at Ted Stevens International Airport in Anchorage, according to Alaska health officials. About 240 Americans are expected to be aboard.

The Alaska Department of Health and Social Services says the passengers will be screened for the illness before they leave Wuhan by U.S. and Chinese health officials. Anyone with symptoms will not be allowed to board the aircraft.

The department in a statement says they will be screened again at Anchorage.

Five people in the United States — two in Southern California and one each in Arizona, Washington state and Illinois — have been diagnosed with the respiratory virus that has killed 81 people and sickened more than 2,700. Symptoms include mild to severe respiratory illness, including fever, cough and difficulty breathing, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

While there have been no cases confirmed in the Bay Area, health officials in Alameda County were testing fewer than 10 people for the potentially deadly illness. The department had no new information to report Sunday, a spokeswoman said.

The CDC confirmed a traveler from Wuhan tested positive for the virus in Southern California, the Orange County Health Care Agency announced late Saturday. The patient, a man in his 50s, is in isolation at a hospital and in good condition, the agency said.

Los Angeles public health officials said Sunday that a person diagnosed and hospitalized there also was a traveler from Wuhan.

The CDC has been screening airplane travelers arriving from Wuhan at five international airports in the United States: San Francisco, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Chicago’s O’Hare and New York’s John F. Kennedy.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Tatiana Sanchez is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: tatiana.sanchez@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @TatianaYSanchez