Coronavirus: US to evacuate citizens from quarantined ship in Japan

The ship was placed under quarantine in Yokohama, Japan last week

The United States will evacuate Americans from the cruise ship that has been quarantined for more than a week in Japan due to coronavirus infections on board, the United States Embassy in Tokyo told Americans aboard the ship on Saturday.

A chartered flight will arrive on Sunday for those who want to return to the United States, according to an email from the embassy to American passengers and crew members. Hundreds of Americans are on the ship.

“We recognise this has been a stressful experience and we remain dedicated to providing all the support we can and seeing you safely and expeditiously reunited with family and friends in the United States,” the email read.

Buses will move Americans and their belongings from the ship to the chartered plane, and the evacuees will be screened for symptoms before boarding, the email read. The plane will land at Travis Air Force Base in California. Some passengers will then continue onward to Lackland Air Force Base in Texas.

Symptomatic Americans who cannot board the flight will remain in Japan for care, according to the email. At least 40 Americans have already been taken off the ship after being infected with the virus.

The evacuated Americans will then need to undergo two weeks of additional quarantine in the United States. “We understand this is frustrating and an adjustment, but these measures are consistent with the careful policies we have instituted to limit the potential spread of the disease,” the email read. It said that those who chose not to take the flight would be “unable to return to the United States for a period of time,” though it did not specify how long; the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would decide the timeline.

The Americans were asked to notify the embassy if they wanted to travel with immediate family members who were not American citizens.

The Wall Street Journal first reported that the government was preparing to evacuate Americans.

The ship, the Diamond Princess, was placed under quarantine at the city of Yokohama early last week with about 3,700 passengers and crew members aboard, after a man who had disembarked in Hong Kong was diagnosed with the coronavirus. Since then, at least 218 new cases have been confirmed aboard the ship.

Many passengers have expressed fear that the quarantine, meant to protect Japan and keep the virus from spreading, was putting them at risk. Experts have said that infections could have spread aboard the ship, despite measures taken to isolate people.

Japan has more confirmed coronavirus cases — the vast majority of them from the Diamond Princess — than any country outside China, where the outbreak began, and it reported its first death from the virus on Thursday.

On Friday, the Japanese government said an official who had helped transfer infected patients from the cruise ship had tested positive for the virus. A Health Ministry official who had been tending to passengers on board also tested positive.”

© 2020 The New York Times News Service