Coronavirus has Florida couple quarantined
Citrus County residents share their experiences after cruise ship docked to offload sick passengers
Florida couple Philip and Gay Courter are trying to make the best of being quarantined on the Diamond Princess in Japan, where dozens of passengers, including 12 Americans, have been diagnosed with the coronavirus.
“I’m out on the balcony looking at at least 16 ambulances lined up here on the pier and they’ve got the quarantine tunnel set up at the door, so I’m sorry to say it looks like they’re going to be offloading more sick passengers today,” said Philip Courter, 77, in a phone call on a clear chilly Sunday morning from the cruise ship docked at Yokohama, Japan.
And he was right. By Sunday afternoon, Diamond Princess confirmed six additional cases of coronavirus, bringing the total to 69. Officials also said that over the weekend, 10 guests disembarked the ship because of non-coronavirus medical needs and were transferred to local hospitals.
The Citrus County couple started sharing their experience on social media after the ship was quarantined on Feb. 4 and before long, the media came calling. There were so many requests that they put their son in the U.S. in charge of arranging the interviews. On Sunday, they handed the affairs off to a PR agency.
“It’s a big story. People are interested in it. And we might as well keep ourselves amused. I mean, it’s better than sitting there twiddling your thumbs,” said Courter.
Courter, a filmmaker, and his wife, a best-selling author, live in Crystal River. They flew to Japan last month and got on the Diamond Princess for a two-week voyage. This was their second time
on the cruise line. They had done it two years ago and enjoyed it so much that they decided to do it again.
Gay Courter did the research for her latest novel, The Girl in the Box, during that first trip on Diamond Princess, writing a psychological thriller that marries “the sumptuousness of a dream vacation with the horrors that lurk around the bend,” according to her website.
“Gay said, you know, here’s this story about a girl in a box, and I don’t want to get off the ship in a box,” said Courter with a chuckle. “Kind of ironic, but these are the kind of funny things that we’re being amused thinking about.”
Meanwhile, the numbers of infections continue to rise, especially in China.
As of Saturday, there were 34,598 confirmed coronavirus cases in China, including, 6,101 severe cases and 723 deaths. Outside China, there have been 288 confirmed cases in 24 countries and one death.
In the U.S., 12 cases have been confirmed in six states. More than 330 individuals have been tested for the virus and the results for 100 of them is pending, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions. The rest have tested negative.
Florida has reported no confirmed cases so far. State health officials have not disclosed if anyone is being tested for the virus.
The Diamond Princess is under quarantine until Feb. 19 to complete the 14 days that are believed to be the incubation period for the coronavirus. No one can get off the ship unless they’re sick. Meals are delivered to the rooms, and passengers are allowed to go on the deck only in small groups for about an hour under supervision.
“It’s a little bit prisonlike, I can’t deny it,” said Courter. “And certainly, 14 days is kind of a long time to be confined to a small space and most of us are just not used to that.”
Diamond Princess arrived in Yokohama on Feb. 4 with 2,666 guests and 1,045 crew on board. Then, Japanese health authorities got on board to check the passengers because a previous passenger had tested positive for coronavirus six days after leaving the ship.
By Feb. 6, the cruise line confirmed that at least 41 people, including eight Americans, had tested positive for coronavirus. That number continues to grow.
As time goes on, the Courters’ worries mount. They’re concerned that the ship’s ventilation system isn’t designed to prevent the transmission of the virus and that the crew members aren’t trained in quarantine procedures and may also be incubating the virus. They’re worried about that lack of sanitation may create other issues on board.
The cruise executives have been posting messages on YouTube to communicate their efforts and Courter said the cruise line is doing the best it can with the situation. “They’ve added a lot of new movies for people to watch and they’ve even opened up several hotlines in various languages for people who psychologically feel they need to talk to somebody, and I imagine they’re going to be quite a few of those.”
Diamond Princess passengers have been given thermometers to check their temperatures daily, and so far the Courters’ temperature has been fine.
“If we’re stuck for the duration, we’re stuck with duration. We’ve known right from day number one that our most important job was to try to stay healthy,” Courter said. “They are saying that when the quarantine period is over, healthy people will be able to walk off the ship and the airplanes won’t be restricted because they have been proven healthy.”
So would the couple go on another cruise?
“Frankly, we’re mixed,” Courter said. “I would probably go on another cruise somewhere someday. Gay says ‘No, that’s it.’”