The city of San Antonio went into court Monday and unsuccessfully sought a temporary restraining order to stop the federal government from releasing more than 120 coronavirus evacuees from quarantine at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland.

The failed motion came just hours after the city and Bexar County each declared a local state of disaster and public health emergency over the impending release of 122 evacuees from the Diamond Princess cruise ship.

Local officials have tried a series of maneuvers in an attempt to gain control of the quarantine from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, after the mistaken release Saturday of an evacuee who still had the virus in her system.

In its court filing, the city argued that allowing those quarantined to leave Monday, as scheduled, would threaten public safety. They requested that the evacuees be quarantined for another two weeks.

“The imminent movement of those quarantined at Lackland by the CDC to other facilities within the City limits or transport to the San Antonio International Airport for travel to another secure location increases the risks to the residents of the greater San Antonio area, creating a public health threat, requiring the City to mitigate the risk of disease and manage the concerns of residents,” the filing said.

But U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez denied the request, noting the federal government’s determination that a 14-day quarantine and two negative tests for the virus are “sufficient to prevent transmission or spread of COVID-19.” The court, Rodriguez wrote further, “has no authority to second-guess those determinations even though the Court also shares the concerns expressed by the Plaintiffs.”

Despite the blow, the judge’s ruling indicated that local officials may still have recourse in the matter — issuing their own quarantine orders using the pair of emergency declarations filed earlier in the day.

“The United States Government is, in effect, washing its own hands further of this quarantine,” the ruling said. “This is disappointing. Nonetheless, Plaintiffs’ motion for a temporary restraining order is denied.”

Throughout Monday, local officials have tried to compel the federal government to keep the cruise ship evacuees, who have not tested positive for the virus, in quarantine so that the group can be retested.

On HoustonChronicle.com: CDC: Coronavirus patient released in San Antonio later turned up positive for infection

The emergency declarations filed by Mayor Ron Nirenberg and Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff empower local officials to “take any actions necessary to promote health and suppress disease,” including isolation and quarantine efforts. They also outline local officials’ authority to use private property to house the evacuees.

The controversy has pitted local and federal officials against each other over the handling of the passengers, growing out of disagreements that have persisted throughout the quarantine. Tensions were further fueled over the weekend, when an evacuee from Wuhan appeared to recover from the coronavirus and was discharged from a hospital, only to later test positive again.

After the mistake was acknowledged by the CDC, Nirenberg and Wolff called on federal officials to extend the quarantine of the remaining evacuees at Lackland until they could be tested once more for the virus. But there was a problem: The federal government’s quarantine order only extended for 14 days, and legally it did not appear that they could hold them for longer than that.

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It is unclear whether the Wuhan evacuee is still actively contagious to others.

However, local officials said they don’t want to repeat the scenario with any other evacuees. Nirenberg said it was “totally unacceptable” that the CDC, which is in charge of the quarantined evacuees, had released a coronavirus patient “prior to receiving all test results,” potentially exposing the public to harm.

Gov. Greg Abbott and state health officials had also urged the CDC to not allow any evacuees to depart until further testing can be conducted and requested that federal officials provide a written rationale before releasing anyone.

Federal officials have yet to respond to local and state officials’ request to keep the evacuees in quarantine. As of Monday evening, the evacuees’ release had been put on hold.

The CDC did not respond to requests for comment Monday. The agency abruptly canceled a national briefing with reporters that was scheduled for late morning.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Two more Diamond Princess evacuees at Lackland test positive for coronavirus, bringing confirmed cases to 8

The Wuhan evacuee, who was in isolation for several weeks at two area hospitals, was released Saturday afternoon after twice testing negative. The results of a third test that same evening came back as a “weakly” positive for the virus, forcing federal authorities to track the woman down early Sunday at the Holiday Inn Express, near San Antonio International Airport. By then, she had also visited North Star Mall.

CDC officials said Sunday that the woman was asymptomatic at the time of her initial release and met all agency criteria for release — resolution of any symptoms and two consecutive sets of negative test results, collected more than 24 hours apart.

“Following the patient’s release, results of a subsequent sample were received and determined to be weakly positive,” the agency said in a statement. “Out of an abundance of caution, CDC decided to bring the individual back into isolation at a local medical facility.”

The woman was taken around 2 a.m. Sunday back to the Texas Center for Infectious Disease, a state hospital where 10 other coronavirus patients are being treated in isolation.

Her hotel room was closed off and disinfected, and at 2:50 p.m. Monday, North Star closed for 24 hours for further deep cleaning.

“Local health professionals, in whom I have the utmost confidence, are working very hard to prevent the spread of this virus here in San Antonio, and we simply cannot have a screwup like this from our federal partners,” Nirenberg said.

On HoustonChronicle.com: CDC: Quarantine lifted for first group of coronavirus evacuees at Lackland

After the mistake was realized, Metro Health officials began to retrace the woman’s steps and learned she had taken a hotel shuttle to one of the city’s busiest retail centers, where she stayed for about two hours on Saturday evening. She spent much of that time alone at the food court, eating Chinese food.

The exact number of people the woman had contact with, and possibly infected, is not known. Health officials conducted a investigation, reconstructing her contact with others, and assessed each person’s risk for contracting the highly contagious virus.

The investigation identified that 18 people at the hospital, where tuberculosis cases are typically treated, were potentially exposed to the virus. Most were deemed to be at a low risk, while two were found to be at “medium risk,” said Anita Kurian, who leads the communicable disease division at Metro Health.

Three people at the hotel, including the shuttle bus driver, also could have been exposed. Officials are confident that exposures there were “pretty confined and contained,” Kurian said.

“The investigation has revealed generally encouraging news, considering the circumstances,” Nirenberg said.

An unknown number of people at North Star came into contact with the woman, but officials said the potential exposure at the mall is believed to be low. When she did enter stores — including Dillard’s, Swarovski and Talbot’s — she browsed and did not spend a significant amount of time interacting with store cashiers, Kurian said.

“She did not stay in one place for longer than maybe two minutes, three minutes,” she said. “We certainly want folks to come forward and let us know if they think they’ve been exposed.”

Kurian said the relevant areas at the mall where the woman was have been disinfected, but the mall still voluntarily closed later Monday.

The governor called the mistaken release “a case of negligence” on the part of CDC and said everyone the woman came into contact should be tested for the virus.

“What happened in San Antonio and what the CDC did is completely unacceptable,” he said. “I think they understand the magnitude of that error they made.”

The patient had isolated in San Antonio since Feb. 11, after being flown to the United States aboard a State Department-chartered plane. She arrived at Lackland with 90 other evacuees on Feb. 7.

The woman, who was the only person infected from that group, was initially treated at Methodist Hospital | Texsan and was later transferred to TCID when her health improved. The remaining Wuhan evacuees were released from quarantine Feb. 20.

Evacuees from the Diamond Princess cruise ship arrived at Lackland on Feb. 17. Of the 144 who were initially quarantined, seven have tested positive by the CDC. Three more tested positive before leaving Japan, where the ship was docked. They are awaiting confirmatory testing from the CDC.

Staff writer Andrea Zelinski contributed reporting from Austin.

Sig Christenson covers the military and its impact in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. To read more from Sig, become a subscriber. sigc@express-news.net | Twitter: @saddamscribe | Lauren Caruba covers health care and medicine in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read her on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | lcaruba@express-news.net | Twitter: @LaurenCaruba