SALT LAKE CITY — Both the Utahns who contracted the coronavirus on a cruise ship earlier this month faced more time in isolation in Japan on Friday, as they each tested positive for the virus in the last 24 hours.
Jerri Jorgensen posted a Facebook video Friday night around 9 p.m. in Utah (1 p.m. in Tokyo) telling friends and family that she remains symptom free, but will stay in isolation at least four or five more days after doctors told her she tested positive for the COVID-19 virus again. The virus, which has infected more than 76,000 people worldwide, infected 676 passengers on the ship that is docked in Yokohama. Two passengers from the ship have died in Japanese hospitals.
“Kind of a gut punch,” Jorgensen said of her test results, noting she was on day eight of isolation after being removed from the cabin she shared with her husband Mark on the Diamond Princess. “Boy this is a practice in living with what is. ... I’m sad, but then I think Mark’s not going to get back before another week anyway. ... Of course it’s going to work out.”
She will be tested again on Monday, but she needs two days of back-to-back negative tests in order to be released.
While Jorgensen has been almost completely symptom free, the other Utahn confirmed to have the virus, John Haering, has been struggling with pneumonia the last few days.
“He feels good,” said his wife, Melanie Haering, in a text to the Deseret News. “He is worried about the pneumonia because when he takes large breaths, it’s very tight.”
Melanie Haering is quarantined at Travis Air Force Base in California, and she said she was tested Friday.
John Haering reached out for help early Thursday morning as he was frustrated and worried that he hadn’t heard from either U.S. or cruise officials since being taken off the ship and moved to a hospital in Chiba, Japan. He emailed both the U.S. Embassy in Japan and Princess Cruise line officials after learning that embassy officials said they’d sent a letter to all U.S. citizens in quarantine in Japanese hospitals.
Within hours of his wife posting his email on Facebook and sending it to the media, they’d heard from Utah Rep. Chris Stewart’s office. Now Melanie Haering says her husband has been contacted by both cruise and embassy officials.
“He, in turn, gave Princess and (the) embassy the names of others in the hospital who had not heard from them,” she wrote in a text to the Deseret News.
John Haering also tested positive in his last test, but he took a new test Friday. He’s scheduled for a CT scan on Monday, Melanie Haering said.
Like Jorgensen, John Haering has to have back-to-back negative tests before he can leave isolation. The two seem to be having very different experiences. While Haering was given a single wedge of orange with his meal Saturday, Jorgensen has received numerous treats, including fresh fruit, from both hospital staff and local members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.