Coronavirus: Australian passengers face quarantine uncertainty as third cruise ship is identified
As a second planeload of Australians is allowed to leave Wuhan, panic is rising on three cruise ships facing uncertain future.
A cruise ship embroiled in the coronavirus epidemic left Yokohama port on Saturday to dump waste water and generate fresh water for passengers, as Australians described just how “draining” the uncertainty had been on board.
It comes as a second planeload of Australians from the virus epicentre of Wuhan were allowed to fly out of the Chinese city, bound for quarantine near Darwin, after the flight was blocked by Chinese authorities on Friday.
Foreign Minister Marise Payne confirmed the Qantas flight, carrying about 250 Australian citizens and permanent residents, had been “on track" to depart Wuhan overnight. They will be sent to the Manigurr-ma Village at Howard Springs, an old mining camp about 30km from Darwin. A young Australian girl evacuated from China on an earlier Qantas flight and in quarantine on Christmas Island has been tested for coronavirus after developing symptoms, authorities said on Saturday.
Meanwhile, hundreds of Australians remain trapped aboard three separate cruise ships, unable to disembark as operators struggle to contain the spread of the virus.
The quarantined Diamond Princess — described by some on board as “a contaminated prison” — has been docked in the Japanese port for at least two weeks after an 80-year-old Hong Kong man who had been on the ship last month fell ill with the virus. Of the 3600 passengers and crew on board, 64 have now tested positive for coronavirus, including seven Australians. The captain was yesterday overheard promising more medical supplies, better internet services and a phone hotline for emotional support as passengers struggled with the conditions on board.
Another cruise ship, the World Dream, in Hong Kong with coronavirus on board has 16 Australians, none of whom are reported ill.
Authorities have also become aware of a third cruise ship in the region that has been kept at sea after visiting Hong Kong, although no coronavirus cases aboard had been reported.
The Westerdam has been stranded at sea after the Japanese, Philippines and South Korean governments refused it permission to dock.
One passenger, David Holst of Adelaide, said: “It’s weird to be on a huge boat standing still. No one wants us, it seems.”
Mr Holst told ABC Radio by phone the captain also advised that the operator, Holland America Line, was speaking with “the US Department of State and the US Navy to work out where the boat will go now”.
On Friday the cruise line Royal Caribbean banned all passengers with Chinese, Hong Kong or Macau passports.
Queensland couple Jan and Dave Binskin say it has been stressful waiting for updates in their small, locked cabin.
The couple, who are from Palm Beach on the Gold Coast, have been entertaining themselves by playing cards, pacing the cabin and practising Zumba fitness dances.
“It is mentally very draining,” Mr Binskin told The Weekend Australian.
“We are definitely getting cabin fever, but just trying to make the best of it. It brings it home that there’s such a high percentage who have been tested. We are sitting here thinking ‘are we next?’”
The couple said they’ve received limited contact from the Australian government, with an email from an Australian embassy contact in Japan coming through two days ago.
Passengers have reportedly been told they will be allowed out of quarantine on February 19 unless there are any significant or unforeseen developments.
Some of the infected passengers were taken off one by one throughout the day on Friday, including one Australian woman who told ABC News about the ordeal.
She was tested on Tuesday but didn’t initially realise what was going on.
“We were called down to the medical centre earlier on and asked to complete forms,” the woman told the ABC.
“And then they came and knocked on the door and basically we got frogmarched off to a room upstairs and they swab-tested us. We didn’t know why. They didn’t tell us anything about it.”
The woman said the only indication of what was going on came from a few passengers they bumped into on the way to their test.
“The people coming out of the rooms were swab-tested before us, basically, their words were, ‘We’re doomed. We have been on the same bus trip as this chap.’”
She believes she contracted the virus while on a port call to the Japanese city of Kagoshima last month. The man from Hong Kong who brought the virus on board was also on that trip.
The woman, who is in her 60s, has now been transported to hospital and told the ABC she would be in total isolation for at least 10 days.
As the ship headed back out to sea on Saturday, US passenger Sarah Arana said there had been reports on board that “many more people” had indicated they had fever and were to be lab-tested.
“We expect the numbers to rise exponentially in the coming days,” Ms Arana said in a Facebook post accompanied by photos overlooking Yokohama harbour from her balcony.
“This is normal. This thing will peak and then subside. Much like the ebb and flow of this ocean, such as it is with life circumstances. I remain healthy, symptom-free and calm.”
She said she was still communicating with several people who tested positive in their new quarantine locations.
“They report the Japanese are taking this very seriously. They are isolated but well cared for and they are all feeling fine,” Ms Arana said.
“A huge percentage of the people that get this virus only have mild symptoms and recover quickly.”
Florida woman Gay Courter told CNN: “This is not a safe environment and we don’t think anybody, let alone the Japanese government, wants to be responsible for making a bad decision of quarantining us in an unsafe place.
“We want off this ship and we want to go in health and not in dire medical circumstances.”
A British tourist on his honeymoon is one of the 64 passengers who have tested positive on the Diamond Princess, The Times reported.
Alan Steele, 58, a father of three from Wolverhampton, is among 78 British passport holders on board. On Friday, Mr Steele told friends on Facebook that he was “being shipped to hospital” after having the virus diagnosed even though he was showing no symptoms.
His nephew, Luke Morrissey, told The Times that Mr Steele, who was widowed five years ago, had been “really excited” about the trip with his new wife, Wendy.
“We were all very happy that he’s found someone to be happy with again, just a shame with all this so close to them getting married,” Mr Morrissey said.
A source said that British citizens on the next UK government flight from Wuhan, the centre of the outbreak, would be taken to a conference centre in Milton Keynes for a 14-day quarantine when they return on Sunday.
Mr Steele was the second Briton to be confirmed with the virus after another man, who had visited Asia, tested positive in Brighton. He was being treated at St Thomas’s Hospital in London. He had attended a business conference at the five-star Grand Hyatt hotel in Singapore, where at least three other delegates also caught the disease.
Two people diagnosed with the virus in York were believed to have contracted it in China.
Mr Steele and his wife, a mental-health nurse, married on January 12 and flew from Birmingham to Tokyo six days later. They have been going “stir crazy” in their cabin with “awful” food after being quarantined. Mr Steele wrote on Facebook: “At the moment I am not showing any symptoms so just possible a carrier. Will let you know how I am going on when possible.”
Mrs Steele said she was unsure when she would next see her husband. “They have just taken Alan away,” she wrote. “I am in ribbons. He is healthy and not displaying any symptoms. I am bereft … if he ends up being ill I can’t look after him. Not only as a wife … but as a nurse.”
Other passengers remained confined to their cabins, many of them windowless. They were allowed on deck only for 90 minutes a time and had to wear masks and gloves. Some elderly travellers said that they had run out of medicines, and all passengers were issued with thermometers.
with The Times
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