The Diamond Princess, owned by Carnival Corp., went into quarantine on Feb. 3, after a man who disembarked in Hong Kong was diagnosed with the virus two weeks ago. The ship is currently being held in the Japanese port of Yokohama near Tokyo.
US government has come to the aid of its most vulnerable citizens who were stuck in the ship.
The first of two planes carrying hundreds of Americans taken off a quarantined cruise ship in Japan arrived at Travis Air Force Base in California late Sunday night. The other plane carrying evacuees from the Diamond Princess ship, which remains quarantined after an outbreak on board of the deadly new coronavirus, landed several hours later, early Monday morning at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas.
The U.S. government confirmed at least 14 Americans on the U.S.-government chartered planes had tested positive for the new COVID-19 disease just before departing Japan. They were kept in isolation during the long flight home and were to be taken for treatment upon arrival.
Those entering the US will undergo 14-day quarantine, on top of the time they have already spent confined on the ship.
Some of the Americans have declined to be evacuated, preferring to wait until the ship quarantine comes to an end on 19 February. Passenger Matthew Smith, a lawyer, said he would not want to travel on a bus to the plane with possibly infected people.
“From tragedy to comedy to farce,” tweeted American passenger Matthew Smith, pulling no punches. “The US government instead wants to take us off without testing, fly us back to the US with a bunch of other untested people, and then stick us in 2 more weeks of quarantine? How does that make any sense at all?”
Those who decide not to board the flight will still have to spend two weeks in Japan before being able to head home, because the American government says that it won’t accept the Diamond Princess quarantine as proof that someone is virus free.
To assist with relief efforts, Japan’s government has given away 2,000 iPhones to passengers on the ship – one for each cabin.
The smartphones were distributed so people could use an app, created by Japan’s health ministry, which links users with doctors, pharmacists and mental health counsellors. Phones registered outside of Japan are unable to access the app.
The reason passengers are upset is because, as early as last week, experts had been questioning the Japanese government’s decision to quarantine people on the ship.
“I don’t understand why they have to be kept on a ship,” said Peter Hotez, of the Baylor College of Medicine. “We’re employing what I call 14th-century approaches and ethics to individuals with transmissible disease.”
The abrupt change in US policy led some to believe that Washington lost faith in the effectiveness of the Japanese response. Earlier this week, it emerged that some 1,000 crew on board the ship had not been kept in quarantine, eating meals together with masks off and working side by side.
The American move has put pressure on other governments with citizens on board the ship to respond. On Monday, Australia announced that it would evacuate 200 of its citizens too.
