Paso Robles woman ‘back home’ in California after coronavirus quarantine on cruise ship
Update 11:30 a.m.:
The San Luis Obispo County Public Health Department says Camp Roberts will likely not host a quarantine of the Diamond Princess cruise ship passengers. For more information, read our story here >> Passengers from coronavirus-infected cruise probably won’t be quarantined at Camp Roberts
Original story:
A Paso Robles woman who was stuck for two weeks in a massive coronavirus quarantine on a cruise ship in Japan has finally returned to California.
In a Facebook post late Sunday night, social worker Sarah Arana wrote that she and her fellow evacuees had landed at Travis Air Force Base and were waiting to be processed by the Centers for Disease Control and other officials.
“What an amazing journey,” she wrote around 11:59 p.m. “I have no idea where they will send me from here and I’m told we don’t get a choice. But it doesn’t even matter. I am back home.”
“My heart is bursting,” she added. “I am ready for the next phase of this journey and whatever magic it holds.”
Arana was one of several hundred American passengers on the Diamond Princess cruise ship, which has docked in the port of Yokohama since late January. The quarantine began after a Hong Kong passenger who sailed on the ship tested positive for the virus, also known as COVID-19.
American citizens on board the ship were told after about 12 days that they could return to the United States on one of two government-chartered planes, but were also informed they would face an additional 14-day quarantine once back stateside.
In a second Facebook post early Monday morning, Arana wrote that she has been provided an apartment at Travis Air Force Base to wait out the remainder of her quarantine.
“It is very nice,” she wrote. “They have marked off the area around us with police tape. I can go outside, just not beyond the tape. It’s almost like living in a murder mystery. I can peer at my neighbors through the windows, but we can’t go near each other.”
14 test positive for coronavirus — will they be housed at Camp Roberts?
Meanwhile the State Department has confirmed that 14 individuals who tested positive for COVID-19 were included in the evacuation, according to a statement released early Monday morning.
Those individuals were moved to a specialized containment area on the evacuation aircraft to isolate them, per standard protocols.
Those who tested positive were asymptomatic, according to the statement.
Passengers who tested positive and any that developed symptoms during the flight were expected to be transported to “an appropriate location for continued isolation and care” once they landed, the statement said.
It is still unknown if any of the passengers will be quarantined at Camp Roberts in San Luis Obispo County.
On Sunday, the San Luis Obispo County Public Health Department warned that some of the passengers who tested positive, but no longer require hospitalization, could be housed at Army National Guard base Camp Roberts.
There are currently no local cases of COVID-19, and there’s a low risk residents will contract the disease, the release said.
This story was originally published February 17, 2020 at 10:28 AM.
%20Cropped.jpg)