Americans on cruise ship in Japan to trade one quarantine for another
TOKYO — Americans Cheryl and Paul Molesky are trading one coronavirus quarantine for another.
The couple from Syracuse, N.Y., are cutting short a 14-day quarantine on the Diamond Princess cruise ship in the port of Yokohama, near Tokyo, to be flown back to the United States. But they will have to spend an additional two-week quarantine period at a U.S. military facility to make sure they don’t have the new virus that’s been sweeping across Asia.
About 380 Americans are on the cruise ship. The Japanese defense ministry said around 300 of them are preparing to leave. Some Americans disembarked Sunday night and boarded buses to take them to Tokyo’s Haneda Airport. The U.S. State Department has arranged for charter flights to take the Americans back to the United States. Canada, Hong Kong and Italy said they were planning similar flights of passengers.
The U.S. Embassy in Tokyo said Washington was evacuating the Americans because the passengers and crew members on board the Diamond Princess were at a high risk of exposure to the virus.
The Americans will be flown to Travis Air Force Base in Northern California, with some continuing to Lackland Air Force Base in Texas. After arriving in the U.S., all of the passengers will need to go through another 14 days of quarantine — meaning they will have been under quarantine for a total of nearly four weeks. Other governments, including Canada and Hong Kong, also will require the passengers to undergo a second 14-day quarantine.
“We are glad to be going home,” Cheryl Molesky told NHK TV in Japan. “It’s just a little bit disappointing that we’ll have to go through quarantine again, and we will probably not be as comfortable as the Diamond Princess, possibly.”
“The biggest challenge has been the uncertainty,” she added.
But it could take years for Inovio’s synthetic vaccine to clear the testing required by regulators before it can join the fight against the novel COVID-19.
Molesky also said she was getting concerned about the rising number of patients on the ship.
“It’s a little bit scary with the numbers going up of the people being taken off the ship for the [virus], so I think it’s time to go. I think it’s time to cut our losses and take off,” she said.
Japan on Sunday announced an additional 70 infections on the Diamond Princess, raising the ship’s total number of cases to 355. Overall, Japan has 413 confirmed cases of the virus, including one death.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, said Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation” that 40 Americans have gotten infected, and those showing symptoms will not be able to get on the evacuation plane.
“If people on the plane start to develop symptoms, they’ll be segregated within the plane,” Fauci said, adding that the additional 14-day quarantine is because of the “degree of transmissibility on that cruise ship is essentially akin to being in a hot spot.”
He added that an infected person who shows minimal symptoms could still pass the virus to someone else.
Asked how they felt about the additional 14-day quarantine in the United States, Cheryl Molesky sighed, and her husband said, “If we have to go through that, we will go through that.”
China reports a drop in new virus cases for the third straight day. The country’s leadership was aware of the coronavirus before the alarm was sounded.
Some American passengers aboard the ship said they would pass up the opportunity to take a flight to the U.S. because of the additional quarantine. There also was concern about being on a long flight with other passengers who may be infected or in an incubation period.
Everyone will get a checkup before being allowed on the chartered flight, and those who show symptoms of sickness will not be permitted to board the plane, according to the embassy. American passengers who have already tested positive for the virus will not be among those evacuated on the flights.
One of the Americans, Matthew Smith, said in a tweet Sunday that he saw a passenger with no face mask talking at close quarters with another passenger. He said he and his wife scurried away. “If there are secondary infections on board, this is why. ... And you wanted me to get on a bus with her?” he said.
He said the American health officials who visited their room were apparently surprised that the couple had decided to stay. They wished the couple luck, and Smith said he told them, “Thanks, but we’re fine.”
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