A Manitowoc Couple has arrived home safe after they were on a cruise ship that had to be quarantined due to a COVID-19 scare.
We spoke with John Johnson earlier today, and he told SeehaferNews.com that he was on the Grand Princess on a Hawaiian cruise with his wife two weeks ago. He explained that they “got quarantined on the ship after they heard that somebody from the previous cruise that was on the same ship had the virus. They actually died I guess.”
John said that neither he nor his wife has experienced any symptoms at this time, but others on the ship weren’t so lucky. He told us that “Out of 35,00 crew members and passengers, 21 actually had the virus. 19 of them were crew members and two were passengers.”
The passengers and crew spent three days on the ship before being transported to Dobbins Airforce Base in Atlanta Georgia, where they were supposed to spend the next two weeks under quarantine.
While the Johnson’s were under quarantine, they reached out to Representative Paul Tittl for help after seeing a news story online that the State of Wisconsin was working on bringing the passengers from Wisconsin home. “I asked people there because there were people there from HHS and the CDC who were there all the time, and they didn’t know anything, so I called Paul Tittl.”
After a few days of phone calls back and forth between John and the Wisconsin State Government, they were able to get back home safe and sound at around 4:00 yesterday morning.
While the situation would send most into a frenzy, John told us he was quite impressed with how everyone involved handled the situation. “This was new to everybody,” John stated. “I thought everyone did a wonderful job, and under the circumstances, did the best they could. We were really impressed with them. There were some people that were irate over this whole thing, and it didn’t help the situation. We just figured we got an extra little free vacation.”
Johnson praised the work of Representative Tittl and Governor Tony Evers’ office for their work getting them home.
John and his wife will have to spend the next two weeks in their home, and they said they would keep us up to date on their condition, but just to reiterate, they have not shown any symptoms at this time, nearly two weeks after they would have first come into contact with the virus.
