Coronavirus: Nightmare nearly over for Americans on Diamond Princess cruise ship

The crews tuning into a

nightmare

for 400 Americans might be over, but for the 3,000 passengers who remain on the Diamond Princess

cruise

ship

, their fate is still up in the air. The US government evacuated two planes full of citizens from the

ship

this morning, which was taking them from Tokyo to military bases in California and Texas, where they will remain quarantined for another 14 days, comes as the number of affected passengers has risen to 350 now that it is the largest outbreak outside China and plans to take the remaining 11 New Zealand passengers on board the shipment home is underway, but a timeline has not yet been set.

CNN Ripley's will is in Yokohama and joins me now live. Hi Lisa, yes, it's nice to finally be able to talk to you. Sorry about the phone problem earlier, so I'm looking at the

diamond

princess

. Now it's such an interesting contrast, it's a beautiful day, the ship is shining in the sun here in Yokohama and yet inside you have these passengers who remain in very uncomfortable conditions quarantined in their rooms trying to make the best of it as we know how, We know that Americans are just hours away from landing at military bases in California and Texas and we know that there are plans underway for a similar evacuation effort, flights and other things for Canadian passengers.

The Japanese remain on board at the moment, but other countries are also following suit. We know that Australia, Italy, are among the countries that will also repatriate their citizens, South Korea, but in terms of the timeline, people have not yet received that information, now it seems that most of the passengers are likely to stay. in the country. going through what they were initially told was going to be the end of their ordeal, the 14 day quarantine period would end on the 19th, which is Wednesday, however, instead of having to basically find their own hotels and spend a 14-day quarantine here in Japan. what are the governments going to provide or flights home and then accommodation for an additional 14 day quarantine in their respective countries, so they sent us a link for a resort in Canada where Canadians will apparently be accommodated, it seems pretty comfortable .

It's actually quite a different situation than the Americans, who will basically be in some sort of military housing after their ordeal. If they are traveling in a converted cargo plane, I was able to see some photos from the inside. It is certainly not a comfortable and comfortable place. flight home, but many of those people are certainly happy to return to their home countries, with doctors they can communicate with more easily and, hopefully, one step closer to finally returning to their homes and their lives. which have essentially been on hold during all of this, absolutely another thing that I'm very interested in.

You say you know that some passengers may not be able to depart by the stated deadline when the quarantine time ends, but we've obviously heard. While Japanese medical teams can only realistically test 300 people a day in terms of getting results and performing the tests, it is suggested that each passenger may need to be tested before leaving ship, but the mass just doesn't add up. . For all of them, getting out on time is exactly what they need, and while Japan is making efforts to try to triple that number, they say that by Wednesday or even tomorrow they could process a total of 1,000 test kits per day. because they have opened it up from government run labs to private labs to process these code swabs that passengers receive, but yes, for your peace of mind and, honestly, for the peace of mind of the people in your countries, everyone will have to do it. get a test and will have to get a negative result before they are allowed to get off the ship and return home.

Anyone who tests positive, and that includes more than two dozen U.S. citizens, will then have to go directly to quarantine rooms. a Japanese hospital in nine different prefectures that are currently handling over 400

coronavirus

cases here in this country, so for some the ordeal won't end because they haven't received their test results yet, you know something? Or have you heard anything about the two New Zealanders who are in hospital and what happens to the people who are in hospital in terms of their repatriation? I have had no contact with New Zealanders and of course we are always trying to communicate. to see how everyone is doing, but I can tell you that what I have seen are the conditions in the quarantine rooms of the patients that we have been communicating with from the United States and generally this does not look like the pictures you're seeing outside of China, where they built these hospitals, and you know, about a week, patients are lying in bed next to each other with doctors in full hazmat gear, usually people have their own room private, the room sealed with plastic wrap on the door and everyone who comes in is obviously fully equipped, you know, full hazmat gear with respirators and all that to prevent them from having any kind of physical contact with the patient, but For example, if someone abroad, a loved one can send food. like a hamburger or, you know, a meal that's not the hospital food that a lot of patients have complained about that they can make it so that people can get their personal belongings, like their luggage and their clothes, people are starting to to be able to do laundry, so I think it's amazing the ability of people to adapt to difficult circumstances and try to make the most of it by watching TV, texting on social media, finding some good books and trying to make it one day at a time. the time.

The Diamond Princess has announced that this ship will not officially sail again until April 20. That's a lot of time. Why do I think there will be an extensive decontamination process? They have to be absolutely sure that every surface on that ship has been scrubbed and disinfected to ensure that no one is at risk of touching a contaminated surface because we know that this virus is transmitted through person-to-person contact, but also if you have contact with a table or a toilet seat or anything that someone who is infected might have touched, so they're going to have to scrub every inch of that ship and I'm sure it's a very time-consuming process, not to mention the fact that I think , for any passengers who have future voyages booked, want to be absolutely certain that all necessary steps have been taken to ensure that ship is free of the novel

coronavirus

before they feel comfortable coming aboard.

Thank you so much. Well dead, it will be CNN's Ripley. She there she is in New York. in Hama and she has been closely following what is happening with the Diamond Princess

cruise

ship through