Cruise Ship Passengers Now Under Coronavirus Quarantine in the U.S.

Tags: Currents Asia, China, Coronavirus, Health, International, Media, World News

Currents News Staff

For some passengers aboard a cruise ship, it’s been from one quarantine to another. 

Karey Maniscalco was just one emotional passenger out of the nearly 300 Americans evacuated from the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan after 13 days in quarantine due to the coronavirus

Their excitement to finally be going home was overshadowed after finding out they will be quarantined again in the United States for 14 more days.

“They have sent over a dozen emails assuring us there would not be an additional quarantine,” she said. “And they just told us that we’d be re-quarantined for 14 more days. I’ve just lost a whole month of my life.”

They left the ship and boarded two converted 747 cargo planes and walked into bare-bones cabins: no windows, makeshift toilets and temporary seats.

“This is a converted cargo 747, so there is less insulation than a regular passenger jet so bring extra layers to stay warm,”passengers were told. 

“It’s not good conditions,” said Kasey, “No one on here has had their temperature taken by the federal government, or any government for that matter. So we’re all in really close, tight quarters. Everybody is sitting next to each other. I’ll have a girl sitting here in just a minute… it seems dangerous and not safe.”

The U.S. government said they are safe, even though the 14 passengers who tested positive for coronavirus after being taken off the ship were allowed on the flight.  They were put in a “specialized containment area,” isolated from other passengers.

Fears about this virus are growing as these and other cruise ship passengers return home, especially after an 83-year-old American woman got off a ship in Cambodia, then flew to Malaysia and was only then diagnosed with the virus.  

Now there are concerns about figuring out where exactly she caught the virus, and who she might have spread it to.

Meanwhile, after a ten-hour flight, the planes from Japan landed at U.S. Air Force bases in California and Texas.  One passenger, Gay Courter, was grateful that they did.

“There has been a lot of silence on this, and now we know the silence has been putting together a brilliant plan,” she said.