Coronavirus: Quarantined on Diamond Princess, First eyewitness account

Hey, how are you doing? We are starting the interview finally. Okay, so how are you doing?

I'm doing fine.

Okay, let's, uh, yeah, so kind of, uh, we'll have to do it all over again. Um, uh, so, uh, thing is that, uh, how did you land up in this ship in the first place?

Well, we decided to go on a 15-day cruise.

Yeah, Yokohama.

So we left Toronto on the 18th of January, and we flew to Tokyo, and we did a started a 15-day cruise out of Yokohama, and which was going to take us into Hong Kong for the lunar. New Year's Day, and then Taiwan and Vietnam, Okinawa, and back to Yokohama, which was about 15 days. Now that 15 days is going to turn into 32 days because of this coronavirus outbreak.

Yeah, so how many people are stuck in the ship?

There is almost 2,700 Passengers and, uh, 1,200 crew members.

And the ship is, uh, what's the name of the ship?

Say it again?

What is the name of the ship?

Oh, the ship is the Diamond Princess.

Diamond Princess.

It's a nice ship. It's a nice— that's, that's actually stationed here now, uh, in the Japanese area. Mostly to do tours around Japan.

Okay, so, um, uh, like, did the Canadian government reach out to you? Uh, you said that, uh, they sent some kind of, uh, you got some kind of an information from the—

Yes, Princess has given Canadian consulate here in Tokyo all the Canadians on board, and I believe there's Near 300 Canadians, and they have let us know that they are aware of the situation. I'm not sure if they are doing anything more than they can because they have to work with the Japanese government because we are in Japanese waters.

Yeah.

And so the health— the Japanese health officials have quarantined us to our rooms. We must stay in our rooms for the next 14 days. We've been 2 days already at that in the Yokohama Harbor.

So today is the 8th day, as you like— as you said, you could count, it was the 8th day. Today was, uh—

No, today, today's starting the 3rd day of quarantine.

3rd day of quarantine.

Yeah, starting the 3rd day of quarantine. Today is the 8th of February, around noon.

Mm-hmm.

And we arrived 12 hours early into Yokohama because they thought it was going to take us a long time to go through customs, you know, do the temperature check to make sure we were okay. But once we got here, they found 10 people with the virus, so they quarantined the ship immediately. 14 days, and then the next day another 10 people were taken off, and then yesterday, uh, it's— there's a total of 61 people now that have been taken off this ship, tested positive for the coronavirus.

Yeah.

So we are, we are going to stay quarantined for 14 days. We've left Yokohama Harbor now. The Yokohama Pier. We left the pier now to go out to sea for 24 hours so the ship can perform its naval duties of taking on water, whatever else the crew has to do.

And can you show us around a little bit, uh, the place? How— what, what does this look like? I mean, how good does the— like, what does the— what does the cabin look like?

Uh, we are in, um, let's see if I can show you the room here. It's just a normal room. Um, we have a television.

Yeah.

And then thankfully we have a balcony. So there's a few, there's a few places here, but you know, it does get a tight spot.

Yeah.

It does become a tight spot after a while, but then thankfully we have a balcony.

Yeah.

That we can walk Out onto this balcony can only be used at port. Balcony now, so I am. I've opened my door to step outside here. If we go outside, you will see some other ships. We're far away from the harbor now. You can see some islands of Tokyo, of Japan over there.

Yeah.

We are going to be— the captain said we are going to be going back and forth out into international waters, heading south and west, so they can just perform their duties out here for the next 24 hours.

Okay, great. So you— how you— how are you guys, uh, spending your days? Like, it's, it's so unnatural to be, you know, locked up and— not really locked up, but confined to one room for so many days. Uh, how are you spending your days?

Yes, it's, it's a little difficult, but like I said, we have this balcony. So it's not a huge balcony.

Yeah, but it's some air.

You can only do so many circles. You can only do so many circles in here. At least we're outside walking around. There's a lot of people with interior balconies That must be getting very frustrated because they haven't seen natural light and fresh air for days. The Japanese officials have now set up a system that the captain has allowed these people to get outside onto the open decks for about an hour at a time, and they're doing it in small groups. So an interior room on this level on this side of the ship is allowed to go upstairs and to get some air after 3 days of being Being quarantined into their room, I'm fortunate that I can walk out on this balcony and get air at any time. Unless the winds are too strong, I can't open this door.

Yeah. So you've had.

So otherwise, say it again.

No, you were saying something.

Oh, so other other than that, you know we get up, they bring a breakfast. Between 8 to 9 o'clock, eating some breakfast, then we walk around in our room, try to exercise, watch some television. Thankfully we have internet that the ship has given us, all free internet.

And television channels.

And yeah, television is normal, but they have added a lot of stations, so we get some more news stations.

Yeah.

And movies, uh, and they also have added, uh, landline that we can actually call home to contact people that we cannot contact through the internet.

Yeah.

So that's very, very, very thankful for them for doing that, and it's very helpful to stay in contact with the outside people.

So are you getting—

So if you have, uh, yeah, if you have friends that are traveling here too, We have phones so that we can call each other from room to room.

Okay, so are you getting enough sleep at night?

Uh, yeah, yeah, yes, sleep is fine. It's, you know, you don't sleep that well because you start to lose track of days, and so you're sleeping a lot in the day. Yeah, because of boredom, I guess. So you're up for a few hours, then you go to sleep, and then you're up for a few hours, you go back to sleep. So the night is much like that as well.

Yeah. So are you getting enough water to drink?

Yeah, the first day in quarantine was very difficult because it was very unorganized and the crew itself was going through a major learning curve. And so the water was very, very scarce. And I did call down and say, are we allowed to drink the tap water? And they said yes, but we do have a kettle in here, so we boiled it. But now we have had a good supply of water, so we have enough water now, a few liters of water that they picked up when they were in the port there at Yokohama.

Yeah, and so, uh, like, is the Canadian government reaching out to you? Do they know of your situation? And what are their plans? Are they planning to bring you— how are they planning to bring you back? Do you know anything? Do you have any idea?

No, no idea at all how we're getting home. As far as I know, we're quarantined till the 19th of February, unless someone else gets sick, that could extend that. Now the— then we come back into the port of Yokohama.

Mm-hmm.

And are they going to let us off the ship? I don't know. And do we have a flight home? I don't know. Most people have lost their flights. Because of well not being able to get home on the fourth and the fifth of February.

Yeah.

So if the Canadian government is going to do something to make sure we all get home, I don't know what's going to happen, and I don't know if we have to be in quarantine again. I guess we'll find that out closer to the to the nineteenth.

Okay. So I how's your mental health? Like physical health, you're fine. Oh, he's crazy. He's crazy.

Yeah, you know, it's okay. A few times, you know, you get depressed, and a few times you start pacing because, uh, you know, just be inside, you want to, you want to do something else. But, but you just have to realize that no, thing is good, stuff is good, and, uh, and just, you know, take some breath, relax. Get out on this balcony and watch some television. And yeah, just, you just have to mentally make sure not let it get to you because, uh, it can. And I, I've had a little bit of anxiety just, you know, from here. And I'm blessed to be able to walk outside, and I'm more concerned about the person in the interior room.

Yeah. It must be more Yeah, and, uh, some people are with claustrophobia and, uh, uh, they must be feeling terrible, you know, claustrophobic inside.

Oh yes, if you're claustrophobic— I, I've been in interior rooms on a cruise and you, and you don't spend much time in your interior room. You spend most of the time on the ship somewhere because you totally lose track of time, day or night. Interior room. So I'm glad these people are starting to be able to get outside.

Yeah, okay. So thank you so much, Jeff, for your— like, for reaching out. And I just hope you guys get back to shore as, like, as fast as possible and get back to Canada, your home, as fast as possible. We pray for your— for For this thing to pass, because I think I don't know maybe you know the the governments of the countries can will be able to arrest the disease and is the spread of the disease at least and you guys will be back home soon.

Yes, I I've heard today that this ship itself is the highest percentage of people infected outside of China.

Oh, okay.

In one space.

Okay.

So there's been 60, 61 people so far, and maybe there's more. But the crew and the captain are doing a very good job at working hard as they can. And, you know, their health is also a concern. So I have to give hats off to them for working as hard as they can and trying the best that they can.

Okay. Thank you so much, Jeff. Thank you very much for the for reaching out.

Thank you, and you have a great day. Yeah, and we'll have another good ten days, I hope.

Yeah, we are hoping to come welcome you back with in Canada as soon as we can as you can as you land.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.