US Couple Quarantined in Cruise Ship Suite for Coronavirus Refuses State Dept’s ‘Monkey Wrench’ Evac Plan: ‘Stay Out of It’

Matthew Smith, who along with his wife is quarantined inside a suite on a cruise ship docked in Yokohama, Japan, ripped the State Department’s “monkey wrench” plan to evacuate US citizens back to an American military base.

Smith and hundreds of other cruise ship passengers have been stranded on the Diamond Princess cruise ship since Feb. 4th, when it docked in Yokohama harbor and began a 14-day quarantine period. So far, 335 people on board have been diagnosed with the coronavirus, making the ship the single largest outbreak outside of China.

Speaking with Fox News host Neil Cavuto from his cabin, Smith explained that he and his spouse were healthy, and unaffected by the virus, and enjoying their suite’s large balcony where “we can go outside for fresh air and sunshine whenever we like.” But he also told Cavuto that the couple was rejecting a State Department offer to remove them from the ship early and fly them back to the United States.

“I tweeted days ago I wanted the [US] government to stay out of it,” Smith said. “While I understand some people haven’t been in an interior cabin before, I can sympathize with anyone going cabin crazy, but frankly we have our greatest desire is to maintain the quarantine the Japanese health officials have established and get a test for the virus after the end of that quarantine so we could establish with relative certainty that we are not infected and could be free to go.”

“Unfortunately the State Department has thrown a monkey wrench into that by saying if we don’t take the flight tomorrow they do not know how long we will have to stay in Japan until the CDC makes a decision on that which they haven’t told us when that is going to happen,” Smith said.

Smith also noted that the State Department plan would place US citizens in a second quarantine at one of two military bases once they arrived back in the country.

“The offer is we are going to put you on buses with other people, who haven’t completed their quarantine and have not been tested for the virus, we put you on a plane with these people and take you back to the United States,” Smith explained. “But because of the risk you still pose due to that situation we will stick you in another quarantine in California or Texas, we don’t know which, and haven’t been informed anything about the conditions of the quarantine back in the United States.”

“This ship is getting a bad rap about conditions,” Smith said. “I won’t speak for people who have to be an interior cabins because of the closeness of that, but we have a nice state room, we have access to the balcony, we are fed well three times a day along with access for all the necessities we need.”

“I wish you and your wife well,” Cavuto said. “I’m glad you’re in, at least, a nicer-sized cabin so you can deal with this, I hope the balcony and all that come in handy.”

Watch the video above, via Fox News Channel.