LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Laura and Don Davis, two former passengers of a coronavirus-stricken ocean liner now quarantined on a California military base, have little to do to pass the time but watch TV, play cards and – they add half-jokingly – avoid arguments.
FILE PHOTO: Passengers from the cruise ship Grand Princess waiting to board a chartered flight on the tarmac at Oakland International Airport in Oakland, California, U.S. March 11, 2020.REUTERS/Kate Munsch/File Photo
But more frustrating to the Modesto, California-based couple than the boredom, the stagnant indoor air, the lack of clean towels or their missing luggage has been what they describe as an almost complete lack of communication from their caretakers.
“We’re not being given any information. We’re being told next to nothing,” Don Davis, 53, a retired California Highway Patrol officer, said during a FaceTime interview from the couple’s second-floor room.
His wife, Laura, 51, a hospital intensive care unit nurse, said she was most appalled by a “fiasco” of haphazard germ-control measures she observed during their transit from the ship to the quarantine site at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar and after their arrival there.
Overall, the two say their treatment has shown a lack of sympathy and competence on the part of their custodians.
Asked about the couple’s complaints, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said in a statement that the quarantine operation “raised many significant logistical challenges.”
She said HHS held a “telephonic town hall” with nearly 300 of those under quarantine on Friday night, and had assigned case managers to “each of the guests to individually address their needs