Sthis queasy feeling all the time. Did I get the new corona virus? “Fear is too much now. But nobody can rule out the possibility that there may have been infections in the quarantine period, ”Martin Lutterjohann describes in a calm voice. The retired psychotherapist from Munich and his Japanese wife Sakae have been sitting in their windowless cabin on board the “Diamond Princess” cruise ship in Yokohama near Tokyo, his wife’s home, for days. If all goes well, the two will be able to disembark on Wednesday. “We are fine, we are both healthy, tested negative.”
The ship has been in quarantine for two weeks. The occasion was the case of an 80-year-old from Hong Kong who had tested positive for the virus. The man had boarded Yokohama on January 20 and disembarked the cruise ship in Hong Kong five days later. So far, 454 of the more than 3000 passengers and crew members have been tested positive, 20 of them are said to have severe symptoms. Until Monday, however, the test results were only available for 1,723 people on board. All infected are looked after in clinics.
While the Americans brought several hundred of their countrymen home on Monday, Lutterjohann initially trusts that the quarantine will ultimately work on the ship. “But of course there is a bit of that feeling of insecurity. Was it safe here or not? ”Says Lutterjohann of the German press agency in Tokyo on Skype. Still, he feels in a “comfortable, safe place”. The same applies to others with whom they are in contact by phone or via WhatsApp, including some of the eight Germans on board.
Every passenger has an iPhone with internet access
“We take things lightly, relaxed. We don’t put any unnecessary stress on us, ”says Lutterjohann and smiles. “Of course, always in the light of the fact that we have now not fallen into a trap and are being tested positively. Then of course something tilts. I don’t know what it’s like then, ”said the German. A German couple, with whom he and his wife came into contact via WhatsApp and who showed no symptoms, was tested positive and has been in a local hospital since Sunday.
Lutterjohann is a trained psychotherapist and psychologist, which helps him to deal with the isolation on board the ship. He offered his professional help – but he has to stay in his cabin. Since it has no windows, he and his wife have been allowed to go out into the fresh air twice a day for one hour each for a few days. “The moment we go to the cabin door, we immediately put on the mask when we receive food, when we go out anyway,” he says. Disinfectants are on every landing. “Nothing should really happen there.”