For Carl and Jeri Goldman, it was supposed to be the trip of a lifetime, a 16-day luxury cruise through Southeast Asia to celebrate Jeri's 60th birthday.
对卡尔·戈德曼和杰瑞·戈德曼来说,这本应是他们一生中最难忘的一次旅行,一场为期16天的豪华游轮之旅,穿越东南亚,来庆祝杰瑞的60岁生日。
The couple, who own a radio station in Santa Clarita, Calif., had booked the trip aboard the Diamond Princess with close friends Mark and Jerri Jorgensen in an adjoining cabin,
这对夫妇在加州圣克拉里塔拥有一家电台,他们与好友马克和杰里·乔根森预定了钻石公主号相邻的船舱,
and they spent the first 15 days taking in the sights in Hong Kong and Vietnam.
前15天他们在香港和越南游览。
"It was magical," says Carl, who is 67. "Jeri said she didn't want it to end."
“这太神奇了,”67岁的卡尔说。“杰瑞说她舍不得结束这一切。”
But when a passenger aboard the Diamond Princess tested positive for the highly infectious COVID-19 virus on Feb. 1, the couple's dream vacation turned into a nightmare.
但2月1日,当钻石公主号上的一名乘客检测出具有高度传染性的COVID-19病毒呈阳性时,这对夫妇的梦幻之旅变成了一场噩梦。
First quarantined on the ship for 12 days, they watched dozens of their fellow passengers fell victim to the disease ("No one realized our ship was a floating petridish, says Carl).
首先,他们在船上隔离了12天,眼睁睁地看着几十个同伴感染这种病毒(“没有人意识到我们的船就是一个漂浮的病毒培养皿,”卡尔说)。
Then just hours into their evacuation flight back to the U.S., Carl came down with a fever and tested positive for the virus.
然后在他们乘坐飞机返回美国几小时后,卡尔发烧了,经检测病毒呈阳性。
He spent the weeks since quarantined in a biocontainment unit at Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha,
此后,他在奥马哈内布拉斯加医疗中心的生物隔离病房里隔离了几周。
as nurses and doctors in hazmat suits monitor his vital signs and rub swabs over anything he may have touched, trying to detect how the virus was being spread.
护士和医生们穿着防护服,监控着他的生命体征,用棉签在他可能接触过的任何东西上采样,试图查明病毒是如何传播的。
"It feels like I’ve been living in a science-fiction movie," says Goldman.
“我感觉就像生活在科幻电影里,”戈德曼说。
"It’s been a life-changing experience. I don’t think I’ll ever take anything for granted ever again."
“这次经历改变了我的一生。我再也不会把生命中的一切都当做理所当然了。”
Since the COVID-19 coronavirus first surfaced in late December, it has spread at an alarming rate from one nation to the next,
自去年12月下旬首次出现COVID-19冠状病毒以来,它已以惊人的速度从一个国家传播到另一个国家,
so far infecting more than 90,000 and claiming more than 3,000 lives, including six Americans in Washington State.
迄今已感染了9万多人,夺走了3000多人的生命,其中包括华盛顿州的6名美国人。
In recent days health officials have begun sounding an ominous alarm, saying it's just a matter of time before those statistics skyrocket worldwide.
最近几天,卫生官员开始发出不祥的警报,称全球范围内的感染和死亡人数飙升只是时间问题。
“We are asking the American public to prepare in the expectation that this could be bad," Dr. Nancy Messonnier,
美国疾病控制与预防中心国家免疫和呼吸系统疾病中心主任南希·梅索尼耶博士在2月25日的新闻发布会上说:
director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said during a Feb. 25 press conference.
“我们要求美国公众做好准备,预计情况会很糟糕。
"The disruption to everyday life may be severe."
它可能会严重干扰日常生活。