Three back from Peru: US never screened us
After weeks of uncertainty abroad, three Humboldt County residents have been repatriated.
Jessica Coming, Eli Baginski and Michael Franklin landed at the Humboldt County airport in McKinleyville Monday afternoon after a 48-hour journey from Peru.
The three boarded a total of two domestic flights that made stops in the U.S. Embassy in Lima, Peru, in Washington, D.C., and in Denver.
The returning travelers said they were never screened for coronavirus at any point on their journey home after leaving Arequipa, the Peruvian city which the three spent the better part of a month
trying to depart after Peru closed its borders in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Coming said her party had their temperatures taken by Peruvian military before boarding a 16-hour bus ride from Arequipa to the American embassy in Lima.
After reaching the embassy Coming and her party were taken to a nearby American military base where they were loaded onto a flight headed for Washington, D.C.
Upon touching down in D.C., Coming said the three may as well have been traveling as if all was normal.
“When we got back to the U.S. it felt like any other trip,” Coming said. “No one ever screened us for (COVID-19) after we left Arequipa. When we landed in D.C. it felt like any other regular flight I’ve ever been on. It felt normal.
“It was surprising to me we never were screened or even told to shelter in place by anyone at any time. I would have thought for sure they’d want to be sure we were not just carrying the virus around,” Coming said. “When we got back home we drove around Eureka expecting to see it completely dead outside, but it’s not at all. In Peru everyone had masks on and the military and police were always in the street making sure people were complying. It was very serious down there. Here, it seems like people don’t get how serious it is yet.”
Meriah Miracle, a Public Information Officer for the Humboldt County Joint Information Center, said in an email to the Times-Standard that the lack of screening or guidance for residents who may have been exposed to coronavirus coming into the Humboldt County airport in McKinleyville after spending time abroad comes down to “access to staff who are tied up handling pandemic response.”
Contacted for comment, the Transportation Security Administration confirmed that it is doing zero screening for COVID-19 at American airports and has not yet been tasked to by the federal government to do so, suggesting instead that the Times-Standard contact the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. While the CDC staffs quarantine stations in 20 U.S. airports receiving international flights, including Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C., Comings said neither she nor her traveling companions were screened there nor at any other U.S. airport, nor by U.S. personnel at the military base in Peru, nor by the U.S. embassy there..
Humboldt County recently confirmed that two flights which landed at the Humboldt County airport in McKinleyville, one from Los Angeles on March 16 and another from San Francisco on March 18, may have exposed passengers to COVID-19 and that those passengers may have contracted and or spread the virus locally.
Less than two weeks later, Comings’ flight touched down at the airport. Franklin, 71, who is at a higher risk for COVID-19 due to his age, said he was surprised the three travelers were sent on their way.
“When we got on that bus one of my deepest fears was that it would be there perfect spot for the virus to spread,” Franklin said. “It was very hot on the bus and we were obviously all confined in a small space. Once we got to the U.S., I thought for sure we’d be screened. I was very surprised that we were not.”
In a Feb. 27 article from the Times-Standard Cody Roggatz, Humboldt County’s director of aviation, said the county airport wasn’t being advised to take any extra measures.
“There are some airports that are doing so, but it’s been limited to airports that receive international flights, which we do not,” Roggatz said.
The Times-Standard attempted to reach Roggatz for a new comment but did not hear back before press time.
Coming, Baginski and Franklin are all self-isolating at home and all three said they feel well and are in good health.
A long road home
Franklin and Baginski arrived in Peru for a backpacking trip in early March. Coming joined them March 15 — and a few hours after her plane landed in Peru the county’s president Martín Vizcarra locked down the country to limit the spread of coronavirus, restricting most flights in and out of the country.
Over the course of the following two weeks Coming and company sat tight in their Airbnb in Arequipa and scanned the internet and social media for any possible way out of the city.
Friday Coming received an email from the U.S. embassy with registration for a bus ride leaving Saturday.
Coming said she estimates that between 300 and 400 American citizens gather in a town square in Arequipa to get on a handful of buses headed to the embassy.
“Thankfully we didn’t get separated on the bus,” Coming said. “But (the military) wasn’t delicate about it. I know a guy got separated from his wife on two different buses and yeah, they were just calling our names and telling us where to go.”
Coming said now that the three are back on American soil, she’s starting to realize how dire her situation had become before leaving Peru.
“Now that we’re back, I think we’re understanding how risky that was,” Coming said. “Even when we were back in the U.S., we were sitting in the D.C. airport watching all these flights getting canceled and hoping we wouldn’t see ours get canceled. The U.S. military, and they were very kind and good about getting us home, but they made it clear that once we landed in D.C., getting home was up to us.”