'We're not done yet': Released from quarantine in Japan, Richmond couple begins quarantine in Canada
Credit to Author: Harrison Mooney| Date: Sat, 22 Feb 2020 01:05:08 +0000
A Richmond couple quarantined for over two weeks aboard a cruise ship in Japan is back in Canada. But their ordeal is far from over.
“We’re not done yet,” an exhausted and frustrated Paul Mirko, 63, said Friday. “We’re halfway through.”
Mirko and his partner landed in Canada early Friday morning, 18 days after a coronavirus outbreak aboard the Diamond Princess led the vessel to dock in Yokohama, Japan, with passengers confined to their cabins. It would become the largest focus of COVID-19 illness outside of Japan.
The two-week quarantine was originally set to end Feb. 19, two days before Mirko’s wife was set to return to work. But the 129 Canadians trapped aboard the vessel were not released until Thursday and it was more of a transfer.
The Canadians spent approximately 24 hours in transit, including nearly six hours on buses at either end of the lengthy flight from Tokyo to CFB Trenton, finally arriving at the Nav Centre in Cornwall, Ont., where they were immediately placed under another two-week quarantine in a wing of the Eastern Ontario hotel and conference centre.
Canada chose to re-quarantine the passengers after they’d already gone through two weeks of isolation aboard the Diamond Princess because new cases were still cropping up on the ship at the end of the incubation period, said Canada’s top public-health official, Dr. Theresa Tam, Friday.
“We are doing this out of an abundance of caution,” she said.
“It’s gonna be pretty tough in this one,” said Mirko. “A lot tougher than the ship, too.”
Paul Mirko of Richmond was quarantined aboard the Diamond Princess in Yokohama Japan due to a coronavirus outbreak on the cruise ship.
On the cruise ship, Mirko and his partner were confined to their tiny cabin on the ship’s exterior, so at least they had a balcony. The couple told themselves it could be worse.
The Nav Centre is worse, Mirko said. Their new accommodations are smaller and the balcony has been replaced by a locked window.
Restrictions are onerous elsewhere at the Nav Centre — over-the-top strict, Mirko said, with a heavy military presence inside the fenced-off area, and few ways to pass the time.
“You can’t order anything,” he said. “Nothing comes in. No care packages, no pizzas, no outside food. We’re dry — there’s no alcohol allowed.”
The quarantined Canadians aren’t being starved, however. Meals are delivered to the room. But there’s no table.
“It’s not a hotel situation. It’s not cruise ship situation. The cruise ship was outside the cabin door and the hotel is outside the hotel room door,” he said. “The amenities aren’t in here, that’s for sure.”
Mirko said he understood why the government felt the second quarantine was necessary. But if March 5 comes and the Richmond couple is not released, he does not intend to accept further detainment.
“I’m absolutely determined to walk on the 5th,” he said.
with files from The Canadian Press
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