U.S. officials flew the owners of a Santa Clarita radio station and hundreds of other Americans to California and Texas on Sunday, Feb. 16, after 12 days spent under quarantine in Japan aboard a ship where hundreds of cases of the coronavirus had been confirmed.
Two chartered flights for Americans aboard the Diamond Princess, a cruise liner on which at least 355 people had tested positive for the virus, had departed Japan and were en route to the United States, the U.S. State Department said. Defense Minister Taro Kono tweeted Monday that Japanese troops helped transport 340 U.S. passengers on 14 buses from Yokohama to Haneda airport. About 380 Americans were on the cruise ship.
Departure plans were explained in a letter from the US Embassy in Tokyo. Returning travelers were screened for signs of the virus, officially called COVD-19, prior to leaving. Those exhibiting symptoms and unable to board the aircraft will receive treatment in Japan.
“To fulfill our government’s responsibilities to U.S. citizens under our rules and practices, as well as to reduce the burden on the Japanese healthcare system, the U.S. government recommends, out of an abundance of caution, that U.S. citizens disembark and return to the United States for further monitoring,” Embassy officials wrote in the letter.
A portion of those making the trip to the U.S. were headed to Travis Air Force Base, about 50 miles northeast of San Francisco, and the rest were destined for Lackland Air Force base near San Antonio, Texas, embassy officials said. All passengers will undergo further observation and be held under quarantine for an additional two weeks.
The departing Americans were evaluated by Japanese and U.S. officials before they were picked up from the Diamond Princess on Sunday evening on buses bound for Tokyo, Carl Goldman of Santa Clarita said. He and his wife, Jerri Serrati-Goldman, were aboard the Diamond Princess during the quarantine and among those returning to the U.S., radio station KHTS reported. The Goldmans own that station.
The Goldmans have been documenting their firsthand experience under quarantine. Their journey was supposed to be a present for Jerri Serrati-Goldman, and became “the ultimate test of our 31 years together,” Carl Goldman wrote for KHTS during the first few days of the quarantine.
The couple has been confined to their cabin and an attached balcony measuring about 12 square feet, save for hour-long periods each day on the upper deck of the Diamond Princess. The couple spent Valentine’s Day trapped on the ship together, and struggled to follow along to a Japanese play-by-play of the 2020 Super Bowl.
People under quarantine had been receiving updates about new cases of COVD-19 found aboard the vessel, Goldman said. However, he learned of reports regarding at least 67 additional passengers who were confirmed to have contracted the illness on Sunday morning from a cable television network.
“Our captain has not shared these numbers with us,” Carl Goldman wrote for KHTS. “I believe it’s to temper the fear of making everyone more apprehensive. It’s a shame because he has been totally transparent up until now.”
The overwhelming majority of those infected with COVD-19 were in mainland China, near the center of the outbreak in the province of Hubei. The illness had killed at least 1,770 people as of Sunday evening. Another 10,844 of the 70,500 people who had been infected in that country have recovered from the disease and were discharged from hospitals, the government said.
COVD-19 is caused by a new strain of the coronavirus, which is a family of viral pathogens common among many species, but only rarely transmitted from animals to humans according to the CDC. Authorities were working to learn more about how it spreads, but believe it is can be passed along by the coughs and sneezes of infected persons.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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