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They’re coming home.
Four Blue Point residents and nearly 400 other Americans still on board a cruise ship hit with 285 cases of coronavirus will be evacuated and brought back to the United States, according to an email sent to them by the U.S. embassy in Japan.
Once the American passengers and crew are back on U.S. soil, they will need to undergo another two weeks of quarantine, the letter explained.
The evacuation is the action that Long Island’s Guy Cerullo and his newlywed wife Milena Basso have been hoping for. The Blue Point couple, who wed in November and were on a honeymoon cruise, have pleaded for U.S. officials, including President Trump, to get them off of the ship, which has been on quarantine since Feb. 3.
The Cerullos, who said they have tried to “keep healthy” by remaining in their cabin, were scheduled this week to close on the purchase of their new home in Blue Point. Two other Blue Point residents are passengers on the ship, according to friends and relatives.
The plane to pick them all up will arrive tomorrow, Feb. 16, in Japan, the U.S. embassy letter said. Buses will take American passengers and crew and their belongings from the Diamond Princess to the aircraft. The cruise ship, harboring off Yokohama, Japan, has become the single largest cluster of coronavirus cases outside China.
“Passengers will be screened for symptoms and we are working with our Japanese partners to ensure that any symptomatic passengers receive the required care in Japan if they cannot board the flight,” the U.S. embassy letter said.
The plane will take the Americans to the Travis Air Force Base in California, the letter said, with some ship passengers and crew continuing onward to Lackland Air Force Base in Texas, according to the letter.
Two more weeks on quarantine
“Travelers returning to the United States from high-risk areas are required to undergo quarantine,” the letter said. “Accordingly, you will need to undergo further quarantine of 14 days when you arrive 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 letter continued.
The letter further cautioned U.S. citizens who choose not to return on the charter flight will be unable to return to the United States for a period of time, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention “making a final determination on this matter.”
Japan’s health ministry said today that another 67 cases of coronavirus were confirmed on the Diamond Princess, bringing the total to 285. At least 32 of those stricken with the virus are Americans.
A vast majority of the ship’s passengers and crew have yet to be tested for the coronavirus. Most of the sick have been taken from the ship to land-based medical facilities.
[getty src="1200669173" width="594" height="396" tld="com"]An American evacuee of Wuhan, China, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, told NBC News about a town hall meeting Friday at Travis Air Force Base, where the crowd was told that Americans from the Diamond Princess will be brought there and quarantined away from U.S. citizens who arrived from Wuhan.
Over 1,500 people have died from the virus, which originated in Wuhan city.
More than 1,500 people stricken with coronavirus have died, and there have been nearly 67,000 cases of infection, most occurring in China’s Hubei province.
