February 19 — that’s when Guy Cerullo and his newlywed wife Milena Basso might be able to leave the quarantined Princess Cruises ship in Japan.
Until then, the only ticket off the vessel for the Patchogue-Medford High School alumnus or his bride would be testing positive for the potentially deadly coronavirus.
“It’s been really hairy and just want to go home,” Cerullo told GreaterLongIsland.com on Facebook, reacting to a GreaterSayville.com article that reported at least four Long Islanders are aboard the Diamond Princess, harboring near Yokohama. “Thank you … for posting this for us.”
Late Thursday, the Japanese Ministry of Health confirmed the quarantine will last until February 19, “unless there are any other unforeseen developments,” Princess Cruises said in a statement.
“We just don’t feel like we’re safe,” Milena Basso Cerullo told CNN in a phone/video interview earlier this week. “If they’re really concerned and worried, we should be quarantined … in a sanitary environment environment that’s safe, not on a cruise ship that’s already infected.”
The couple had saved for this honeymoon cruise for two years, said Basso Cerullo, who added a plea to President Trump:
“Donald Trump save us,” she said in the CNN interview. “Get us a government-based airplane. Get us off the ship.”
There have now been 61 documented cases of coronavirus — including 11 Americans — aboard the Diamond Princess. The amount tripled late Thursday, with the addition of 41 new patients.
So far, 20 of the sick have been taken off the cruise ship.
At least four Long Islanders are stuck on the cruise ship, including the Cerullos, who live in Garden City, and a Blue Point couple.
Princess Cruises confirmed there were more than 3,700 guests and workers on the ship when it was first quarantined this week.
