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Northern Ont. couple on pins and needles waiting to be evacuated from quarantined cruise ship

'The Government of Canada announced late Saturday night that it has chartered a plane to repatriate Canadians on board the Diamond Princess cruise ship'.

CALLANDER — Callander’s Trudy and Steve Clement are among the over 200 frustrated Canadians waiting for information on when they will be heading home, after spending nearly two weeks aboard a quarantined cruise ship docked in Yokohama, Japan.

The ship, Diamond Princess, has been quarantined since February 3 after some passengers tested positive for the coronavirus. Ninety-nine new cases on the ship have been diagnosed in the past day.

As of Sunday, the number of positive cases climbed to 355. Roughly 37-hundred passengers and crew were on board the ship and 240 Canadians are still waiting to learn when the government will fly them home.

The Government of Canada announced late Saturday night that it has chartered a plane to repatriate Canadians on board the Diamond Princess.

“We got very excited because it is like, finally. Finally, they’re going to move on this, do something about this. But we have had no more information than that. We haven’t got a time, a date, anything,” said Trudy, angry over what she sees as a  lack of communication by the Canadian government to its citizens holed up in their cabins, left wondering what was being done on their behalf.

“We hear more from people like yourselves, the news media, and Facebook, social media than we do here on the ship. People know things before we do. People knew before we did that the American’s were getting off. We had no clue.”  

Wednesday, February 19 was originally scheduled as the last day of the ship- imposed quarantine.

A letter from the Canadian Embassy received a few days ago stating that three officials from Canada had arrived in Tokyo was “in my opinion, too little, too late.”

“I would have to hear a very convincing reason why they could not have come earlier and started this process of getting the Canadians home. They could have started earlier and had everything in place.”

In Saturday’s written statement, Foreign Affairs Minister Francois-Phillipe Champagne explained that the decision to remove the Canadians was taken “because of the extraordinary circumstances faced by passengers on the Diamond Princess and to lighten the burden on the Japanese health-care system.”

The news release from Global Affairs Canada said the Canadian government was working closely with Carnival Cruise Lines and the Japanese government to assist with the evacuation.

“I can be packed in five minutes. I’m already half-packed if you want to know the truth. We can be ready on a moment’s notice, believe me, if we’re getting off this ship and getting home to Canada,” said Trudy.

Until more details surrounding their departure are released, the emotional rollercoaster continues.

“When we first heard we were to be evacuated, we were really excited. But then you crash because you think, what if? What if one of us tests positive? What if there are more tests and they hold us until Saturday? Sunday? You go up and down emotionally,” Trudy said.

“We have good days. We have bad moments. We cry a lot and are just terribly, terribly homesick. When we travel, we don’t usually feel that homesickness because we are free to come and go and we’re doing our thing. But now we don’t have that choice. It has been taken away from us.”

The couple is waiting for the results from passenger testing taken three days ago.  

“We’ve already discussed this. If one of us comes out positive, of course, we’re removed from the ship right away and shipped to God knows where, but we’re not leaving Japan without each other,” said Trudy.

The Canadians know anyone exhibiting symptoms of COVID-19 will not be permitted to board the aircraft.

Instead, they will be transferred to the Japanese health system for appropriate treatment.

“If they do what they did with the Americans, buses came late at night, I guess because the airport would be less crowded then. People loaded their luggage on the buses, and they got to the airport and went through another screening for symptoms before they were allowed to board the plane, and then whoever passed the test was allowed to board.”

The Canadians are expecting a further two-week delay getting home even after touching down on Canadian soil.

The passengers will be assessed and taken to the NAV Canada Training Institute in Cornwall where they will remain under quarantine for another two weeks.  

“We are the test case for this. There is going to be a protocol in place after this I’m sure,” said Trudy.

Once they get through their ordeal, the couple plans to discuss their experiences and frustrations with someone at the political level so changes can be made.  

“Steve and I have thought maybe we should be saying something about all of this after we get home. I would like to go right to the top, but I know that is not possible. I would have to look into what the best avenue to take would be to do that.”

A U.S. couple, Cheryl and Paul Molesky, filmed their experience disembarking the Diamond Princess cruise ship docked in Yokohama late Sunday evening, expressing relief over finally being able to leave.


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