US evacuates quarantined citizens off Diamond Princess
Special flights bring Americans home after a lengthy ordeal in Japan, write Motoko Rich and Austin Ramzy
American passengers evacuated a cruise ship that had been quarantined for more than a week in the Japanese port city of Yokohama after hundreds of people on board fell ill with the coronavirus.
The Americans boarded two chartered flights to the United States, and the flights departed Tokyo at 7.05am local time yesterday, according to a statement by the US Embassy in Japan.
As the passengers prepared to leave the country, Japanese health officials said the number of confirmed coronavirus cases found on the ship, the Diamond Princess, had grown to 454.
“Can’t get off here fast enough,” Sarah Arana, 52, a social worker from California, told reporters on Sunday.
The US Embassy had recommended that its citizens stay aboard the ship during a 14-day quarantine period. But it suddenly changed course on Saturday, citing “a rapidly evolving situation” as conditions appeared to worsen.
American passengers said they were told to prepare to leave the ship at 9pm local time. Their flight was scheduled to depart Haneda Airport in Tokyo at 3am yesterday. Officials said they would be taken to one of two military airbases in the United States.
But the process, taken deck by deck, went slowly. It took several hours to load all passengers on buses to take them to Haneda Airport.
On one of the buses, Gay Courter, 75, an American novelist travelling with her husband, Philip, said the passengers were mostly silent. A doctor in a yellow hazmat suit accompanied the group.
“Clearing my throat sounds like thunder,” Gay Courter wrote.
All passengers were given N95 respirators — a heavy-duty mask fitted to the face that filters out 95% of smaller air particles — to wear onboard the cargo planes, Ms Courter said.
Some sections of her flight were segregated from others, with those who had tested positive but were not yet showing symptoms sitting in a tented area of the plane, she wrote.
Passengers on the charters were told there would be no overhead luggage space, so all carry-ons had to fit under the seats in front of them, and shipped luggage could not exceed 70 pounds. The converted 747 cargo plane could be cold, the officials said, so passengers were advised to shower and dress warmly. They were also told to take their own food.
Rachel Torres, 24, who had been on her honeymoon with her husband, Tyler, also 24, said they were trying to clean their stateroom so as not to leave a mess for their cabin steward.
“We didn’t sleep much last night,” said Rachel Torres. In preparation for flying, she said, the two were “drinking as much water as we can to hydrate for the flight since we will be wearing masks on the plane.”
Including the cases aboard the Diamond Princess, Japan has recorded the highest number of infections from the new coronavirus outside mainland China. Worldwide, more than 70,500 people have been infected, and at least 1,770 have died, almost all in China.
When the ship was under quarantine, more than 3,700 passengers and crew aboard were on board, including 400 Americans. Those found to have the virus and some particularly vulnerable passengers were taken off the ship.
Only those passengers who were screened and did not show any symptoms of the illness were allowed to board the flights bound for the United States, according to a statement.
“All travellers on these flights were screened for symptoms prior to departure and will be subject to Centers for Disease Control (CDC) screening, health observation, and monitoring requirements,” the statement said.