Former Long Islander describes life in China amid coronavirus outbreak

Three-hundred Americans are back in the United States after being quarantined for nearly two weeks on a cruise ship in Japan due to the coronavirus. Fourteen of them have tested positive for the virus.

News 12 Staff

Feb 17, 2020, 10:15 PM

Updated 1,773 days ago

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Three-hundred Americans are back in the United States after being quarantined for nearly two weeks on a cruise ship in Japan due to the coronavirus. Fourteen of them have tested positive for the virus.
A couple from Garden City on their honeymoon were among those who were stuck on the Diamond Princess Cruise.
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More than 450 people on the ship tested positive for the virus. Late last week, the U.S. government chartered two planes to pick up American citizens who were desperate to come home.
News 12's Eileen Lehpamer spoke via video chat with a Long Islander who now lives in Jinze, a Chinese village in the Shanghai district, that is currently under quarantine. It is an eight-hour drive from Wuhan, the center of the outbreak.
"Most of the streets are blocked with medical checkpoints where they will take your temperature," said Dylan Ebrahimian. "I see the older local people hanging out on the street like they always do, some without a face mask, but then at the same time you'll have people with the full scrubs on, walking around."
Ebrahimian, a Lattingtown musician who graduated Stony Brook University, and his wife say they're making the best of it.
"We are basically waiting at this point," said Ebrahimian. "We don't know when it's going to go back to normal."
The 14 Americans who flew home and are infected will have to be quarantined again in the U.S.