Coronavirus cancels vacation, Bay Area family now in self-quarantine
A Bay Area family flew all the way to Southeast Asia for what some would call a trip of a lifetime, only to turn around and come back to the US once they realized the severity of the novel coronavirus.
They're now taking proactive measures to keep others from getting sick, even though they have yet to become ill.
"We just felt like we could've been exposed to it... we're not sure," said Gail Yip, who lives on the Peninsula and was traveling to Singapore for the start of a Celebrity cruise, as cases of the coronavirus grew exponentially in China.
RELATED: Coronavirus: Safety concerns ahead of Chinese New Year Parade
However, as Yip touched down, she and her travel mates knew they'd have a tough call to make - Either board the ship for a two-week excursion that was scheduled to dock in multiple Asian countries or to instead return home. They close the latter.
"We planned it a year ago, and so there were going to be 16 of us, and we met beforehand, talking about the cruise and we were all getting excited," said Yip.
Out of an abundance of caution, Yip and her family have voluntarily decided to quarantine themselves for two weeks, even though they're not sick and haven't shown any symptoms.
"It's the better thing to do for us," Yip said. "That's the decision we all made."
As for the cruise, it turns out they may have made the right choice. The family has since learned the ship they were slated to be on, has been denied entry at multiple ports over the past week.
See more stories related to coronavirus here.
RELATED STORIES & VIDEOS:
- Delta, American Airlines, United temporarily suspend all flights to China amid coronavirus concerns
- What is coronavirus? What US health officials know about outbreak that originated in Wuhan, China
- WHO declares global emergency over coronavirus from China
- Coronavirus: Delta, American Airlines, United temporarily suspend all flights to China amid outbreak concerns
- 1st US human-to-human coronavirus transmission confirmed, bringing country's total cases to 6
- Want to avoid coronavirus? Health expert advice here
