Florida family trapped on Nile cruise by Coronavirus

CAIRO When Javier Parodi returned from a tour of the famous ancient tombs of Egypts in the southern city of Luxor last week, he was upset to see that the cruise ship that had brought him there was not where he left it.

The gigantic MS Asara, carrying some 150 American, French and Indian passengers, was the only ship moored on the opposite bank of the Nile, isolated from the line of tourist ships, fearing that its passengers had been exposed to the new coronavirus.

Parodi, 35, then found himself confined for days on board the Asara, where 12 Egyptian crew members had just contracted the virus. The Nile cruiser has become the epicenter of the virus epidemic in Egypts, a jewel in tourism.

When passengers were informed of the cases reported by their vessel, Parodi said the confusion had quickly broken out.

Some of the worst thoughts come to mind, said Parodi, who travels with his cousin and mother from Miami. The two members of his family are in their late 60s and suffer from underlying respiratory conditions, which makes them particularly vulnerable if they are infected with the virus. These crew members were the ones who served our food and cleaned our sheets.

After local doctors took blood samples and oral swabs from all the passengers on board, Parodi looked out of the cabin window at dozens of his traveling companions, who had been tested positive for the virus, transported by air military to a quarantine unit on the north coast of Egypts. None of them had shown symptoms.

It was pure panic, he said. Like when you are in a car accident and you can't even write the license plate number, you are so overwhelmed and nervous.

Egypts' sudden declaration of 45 new cases of coronavirus on the same ship, a drastic peak from its previous national record of three, has raised fears that the disease is much more widespread in the most populous country in the Arab world that the government hadn't detected.

The Asara was the first concerned when a US-Taiwanese woman who cruised in late February was confirmed by the virus after returning home. Since then, at least 21 Americans who returned to the United States after cruising the Nile in late February or early March, apparently on Asara, have been confirmed by the virus. The Taiwans Center for Disease Control rebutted the claim that the Taiwanese-American woman was the source of the virus on the ship, claiming that she had been infected by an Egyptian guide who was the first to show symptoms .

Parodi and his family flew to Egypt when the rate was the lowest in the region, joking that they would be better there than in the United States.

The ministry of health reported 59 cases on Tuesday. A 60-year-old German tourist from another Nile cruise died Sunday evening, marking the country's first and only death so far. In response, the government has put a temporary ban on large public gatherings, but has taken some other precautionary measures, unlike elsewhere in the Middle East, where schools have closed. The Ministry of Antiquities proudly announced that "thousands of tourists continued their normal route" to the ancient temples of Luxor throughout the day.

What bothered Parodi the most was the lack of clear information. First of all, a doctor told the passengers that they would go home after their first tests came back negative. Now they have been asked to wait to be tested a second time, and have no idea when they will be.

No one seems to understand what's going on, he said, adding that a local taxi driver erred on the boat and is now stuck in a two-week quarantine with the others.

In a few days, their Egyptian guide went from explaining mummification practices to quarantine rules: do not leave your cabin unless you have to, separate yourself from a meter, wear masks and wash your hands with additional soap.

Parodi and his family waste their time scrolling their phones and watching the movie Fast and Furious ", which is broadcast repeatedly on one of the few TV channels available on the ship. The local crew, wearing masks and gloves, put meals in plastic bags three times a day.

It really doesn't sound like what you said to Egypt, he will say.