SAN FRANCISCO — Amid canceled flights, tightening global travel restrictions and looming plans to quarantine Americans returning from China, the tension at a handful of airports still receiving flights from the country mounted on Sunday. Travelers described a scramble for the few remaining tickets out of China, as federal officials readied military bases to house hundreds of people potentially exposed to the deadly coronavirus.

“It feels like trying to leave Paris in 1940 or something — there’s a bit of panic settling in,” said Jeffrey Phillips, 41, who was unsure when his wife, Sue, would be able to return to the United States after a trip to visit her family in China.

Under new federal rules that apply to United States-bound flights that take off after 5 p.m. Eastern time, American citizens who have been in China’s Hubei province, the epicenter of the epidemic, in the last 14 days will be subject to a quarantine of up to two weeks. Military bases said they were expecting to house about 1,000 such “evacuees.”

Other United States citizens who have visited mainland China will undergo a health screening and can be ordered to quarantine in their homes for up to 14 days, according to the Homeland Security Department.