Texas Governor Greg Abbott

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott slammed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday for releasing a woman who had tested negative twice for the coronavirus before a subsequent third test came back positive in San Antonio.

It appears to be a case of negligence with regard to allowing this person who had the coronavirus to leave the Texas Center for Infectious Disease and go back into the general population,” Abbott told reporters in Austin.

The woman was evacuated from Wuhan, China, to Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio on a flight chartered by the US State Department. She was released from the Texas Center for Infectious Disease on Saturday, according to San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg.

“Every possible action that can be taken is being undertaken to make sure that her exposure to anybody in San Antonio is minimized and limited,” Abbott said. “My office had been fully engaged making sure that CDC immediately implements course correction.”

There were people who were scheduled to leave Lackland on Monday, but Abbott said they won't be allowed to go home.

They will not be allowed to go until the CDC can guarantee that they have no trace of coronavirus and pose no threat to the expansion of the coronavirus anywhere in the country,” Abbott said.

There are 11 people who tested positive for coronavirus remaining at the center, Abbott said.

“All of these 11 people have what is considered to be very mild cases of the coronavirus," Abbot said. "None of them are serious."

"What the CDC must do is that they must improve their protocols and they must be absolutely certain that before they allow anybody to be released from any location in San Antonio, that they can assure the public that whoever they are releasing does not have the coronavirus,” Abbott said.