Tom Sheehan, 68, died in Sarasota, Florida, after his return from a chartered flight secured after a devastating infection rampage aboard an Atlantic cruise ship.
It was thought to be bronchitis at first, but now along with the world record of the infected, he was one of the statistic in the COVID-19 pandemic who was sacrificed mercilessly by the disease.
And criticism of the American airport authorities are beginning to be formulated, after fellow passengers and friends and family of Mr. Sheehan claim it was an absolute disaster of a prevention effort that was made in the Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, where hundreds of asymptomatic passengers were free to roam after they passed the gates.
These passengers originate from the one of the many cases of seaboard corona outbreak in a cruise ship. The vessel started its voyage from South Florida on March 5, with hundreds of passengers on board, en route to France via Puerto Rico, Antigua and Spain. When it was the third day on their voyage, the first patients who had the symptoms relative to the coronavirus got off at Puerto Rico.
And slowly, the virus claimed its victims. March 12, a man got off from Cayman Islands proved positive for the virus. Few days later, a woman of the party who disembarked in Puerto Rico and the Cayman Island were both dead.
More and more patients began to look for landing, some getting off at the Canary Islands, while Spain and Antigua forbade their landing officially, turning them away. Passengers were told to form their own quarantine. They finally were allowed to land in France, where U.S. authorities coordinated a flight home for the rest of the passengers.
Carnival Corp., which owns Costa Cruises, the mother company of the said vessel issued an official statement that:
“As a precaution, all guests were fitted with medical masks and gloves by onboard medical staff before receiving approval from French authorities to disembark and proceed to Marseille Provence Airport for departure to the US,”
From then on, the nightmare started as soon-to-be proven positive patients were mixed on board the flight with the uninfected passengers, and they were made to withstand 10 hours of virus infection without proper separation or quarantine measures.
The most aggravating thing is, when they got off the airport, authorities sorted out those who were obviously symptomatic, and let the others go their own way, without any measures whatsoever. This was how Sheehan contracted the fatal disease, dying alone while his family was forced to say their last words with him through a telephone call.
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