An American woman and her husband are on board the Diamond Princess cruise currently quarantined in Japan due to confirmed coronavirus cases, and she is sharing their experience.
“Two mornings ago, we awoke to the news that we are now quarantined to our rooms for 14 days by order of the Japanese government,” said author Gay Courter.
She and her husband, Philip Courter, are among the more than 2,600 passengers being kept under quarantine aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Yokohama.
At that point, she said, they were told there were 10 cases. But then, by Friday morning, she said they woke up to the news of even more cases.
On its website, Princess Cruises confirmed that 41 more people tested positive for coronavirus, including eight Americans.
The cruise was quarantined after learning that a guest who got off in Hong Kong last month on an earlier part of the trip later tested positive for coronavirus.
“The Japanese Ministry of Health has confirmed this is the last batch to be tested, and the quarantine end date will be Feb. 19, unless there are any other unforeseen developments. The Japanese government is also providing our ship and team members additional manpower support,” the company said in an update Thursday night, Pacific time.
At least the couple’s cabin does have a window, Gay Courter said, which gives them a glimpse of what’s happening outside. “Anybody who is positive for infection has been removed from the ship,” she said.
From their balcony, they can see “there have been ambulances from all over various prefectures in Japan, coming and taking away people, separating families,” she said. And those who have tested negative are being held on the ship under quarantine, she added. “I just heard that two honeymooners were split up.”
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Gay Courter said she is especially concerned about their safety since both she and her husband are in their 70s; according to CNN, China’s National Health Commission has reported that as many as 80% of the coronavirus deaths were over the age of 60.
In one way, Courter said, she and her husband are lucky: “We luckily have a balcony so we can get some fresh air and light. People in inside cabins are windowless, airless — and I’d be losing my mind.”
Aside from her concerns about the closed environment on the ship and the risk of contamination under those circumstances, Courter said the start of the cruise stood out in stark contrast to the way things are now.
Before the quarantine, she said, “We were eating, you know, filet mignon, lobster tails, crème brûlée, anything you wanted. So, they went from gourmet to ghastly overnight.”
WTOP’s Neal Augenstein and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
