Coronavirus quarantine: US to evacuate nearly 400 Americans on board cruise ship in Japan
The United States will evacuate American passengers under quarantine due to coronavirus on board Princess Cruises’ Diamond Princess in Japan, the U.S. Embassy and consulates in Japan announced early Saturday.
The evacuation comes days before the required 14-day quarantine is supposed to end on Feb. 19. According to the Centers for Disease Control, there are around 400 American passengers on board the ship.
The U.S. State Department is coordinating with the Department of Health and Human Services along with other agencies to provide a charter aircraft to bring passengers back to the U.S.
The flight will arrive in Japan on Sunday night, according to a letter sent to passengers. Americans will be bussed to the aircraft and will be screened for coronavirus before boarding; symptomatic passengers will receive care in Japan if they cannot board the flight, the letter says.
The flight will land first at Travis Air Force Base in California, where some passengers will stay, while others will continue on to Lackland Air Force Base in Texas.
All travelers returning from a “high risk area” will be required to complete a full 14-day quarantine upon their return.
Matthew Smith, a passenger quarantined Diamond Princess, told USA TODAY he was not planning to take the charter flight back to the U.S.
“We think the way they are handling this is not safe,” Smith said Saturday. “They want to take hundreds of people off the ship before the quarantine here has been completed and without them ever being tested, and they want to throw them on buses together, then a plane, then force them to serve another 14-day quarantine under unknown circumstances.”
Americans who choose not to return on the charter flight will be unable to return to the U.S. for a period of time, the letter said, though it did not indicate how long that would be.
Earlier in the week, some passengers, starting with the medically vulnerable, were let off the ship to complete the quarantine. The first group of passengers on the Diamond Princess cruise ship disembarked in Yokahama, Japan, to complete their 14-day quarantine period for coronavirus off the ship, the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo said Friday.
Eleven people, including two Americans, disembarked, according to the embassy. Officials are placing priority on elderly passengers with pre-existing conditions or in rooms with no balcony. All eligible passengers would have to test negative for coronavirus, the embassy said.
As of Thursday, at least 218 people aboard the ship had tested positive for coronavirus, including at least 20 Americans. The Diamond Princess is thought to be the largest group of coronavirus patients outside China, where the outbreak has infected almost 66,500 people and killed nearly 1,500 as of Saturday morning.
The Princess Cruises ship was carrying 2,666 guests and 1,045 crew when it set sail and was quarantined after an initial 10 cases of coronavirus were reported Feb. 4.
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MS Westerdam: No longer in limbo
Meanwhile, the aimless journey of Holland America’s MS Westerdam has come to a close: Passengers began to disembark early Friday at the port of Sihanoukville, Cambodia, their detour the result of coronavirus fears.
“The first passengers are off the Westerdam and headed home!” the U.S. Embassy in Cambodia tweeted early Friday local time. “We’re happy to greet them as they step onto dry land. Thank you to the government of Cambodia who helped this happen.”
The ship’s 1,455 passengers had been waiting for the all-clear from the Cambodian Health Ministry. After 20 samples were tested for coronavirus at the Pasteur Laboratory in Cambodia’s capital, Phnom Penh, passengers received permission to disembark.
Erik Elvejord, Holland America’s public relations director, said the process would take a few days, with the goal of having everyone off the ship by Sunday. The cruise originally was scheduled to end on Saturday.
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Contributing: Curtis Tate, Jayme Deerwester, USA TODAY
