Coronavirus: missing meals, no toilet paper, and leaks, but for some Hong Kong quarantine is ‘heaven’ compared with ‘luxury hell’ of Diamond Princess cruise
- Lack of basic essentials takes its toll on passengers who returned from Japan last week
- But escaping the daily fear of being infected outweighs problems at the Chun Yeung Estate
Six days into their mandatory quarantine period and the Hong Kong passengers evacuated from the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan are experiencing wildly different emotions.
For some of those being held on Chun Yeung Estate time is hanging heavy, and a lack of meals, toilet paper, and other basic necessities is taking its toll.
But others have described the public housing estate in Fo Tan as an “unadorned heaven” and are just grateful to be free of the “luxury hell” of the ship, and the daily fear of discovering they have been infected with the coronavirus.
So far, 240 of the 369 residents that were on board have returned to Hong Kong, five of them testing positive for the virus after arriving back in the city from Yokohama, where they had been stranded since February 4.
David Yeung Kun-wah, 70, and his wife were among the first to leave on a government-chartered flight last Thursday, and have been in the quarantine flat since then.
