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Atlanta Couple Ready To Return To US After COVID-19 Diagnosis In Japan
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Two 80-year-olds who have been married more than half a century traveled together to Vietnam, celebrated their wedding anniversary aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship and survived COVID-19. Now they are ready to return home to Atlanta, their son said Tuesday.
Renee and Clyde Smith tested positive for the disease caused by a new coronavirus that was first reported in Wuhan, China, late last year. They spent nearly a month quarantined first aboard the ship and then in a hospital in Japan.
While Clyde developed pneumonia, the infection resolved early and neither he nor his wife experienced further symptoms of the deadly disease. They will be able to return to Georgia when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention clear them, David Smith said.
"I'm so happy," David Smith told GPB News. "I hope they can come home soon, but we are not sure when that will be."
The Smiths are being released from the hospital in Japan because they both tested negative for coronavirus twice. The cruise line offered to pay for the couple to stay at a nearby hotel until the CDC and U.S. Embassy authorize their return, David Smith said.
"The president of the hospital gave my parents a letter talking about how sweet they are and the nurses gave them a lot of cards," he posted on Facebook. "My parents say they couldn't have been treated any better at the hospital."
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COVID-19 spreads through the air when an infected person coughs or sneezes. Symptoms appear within two to 14 days after exposure and include fever, cough, runny nose and difficulty breathing. Those considered at risk for contracting the virus are individuals with travel to areas where there are ongoing outbreaks of COVID-19 or individuals in close contact with a person infected with COVID-19.
Gov. Brian Kemp on Monday confirmed the first two cases of COVID-19 in Fulton County.
Fulton County Board of Health Director Elizabeth Ford said Tuesday a 56-year-old man recently returned from Milan, Italy, and he and his son visited a private physician before testing positive. The man's spouse and another child are also being tested. The family remains under home quarantine with mild symptoms.
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