A California student who recently returned home from Italy has quarantined himself in an RV outside his parents’ home because he ‘wasn’t screened at two major airports’.
Jake Eastman, who attends Santa Rosa Junior College, was studying abroad with a group of students when the coronavirus spread across Italy, where there are more than 10,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and 631 deaths.
Italy’s prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, recently placed the entire country on lockdown in an attempt to stop the spread of the virus.
Eastman, who was feeling bad while he was Italy, said his parents purchased him a flight home on March 4 before the lockdown was put in place.
California student, Jake Eastman (pictured holding Lysol outside of RV), who recently returned home from Italy has quarantined himself in an RV outside his parents’ home because he ‘wasn’t screened at an airport’
Eastman (pictured in the RV), who attends Santa Rosa Junior College, was studying abroad with a group of students when the coronavirus spread across Italy, where there are more than 10,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and 631 deaths
Eastman said his parents purchased him a flight home on March 4 and he has been in self-quarantine ever since. Eastman is currently self-quarantining in his parents’ RV (right) outside their home (main)
‘I went to the doctor and found I had a sinus infection,’ he told CBS. ‘And then, the next week, immediately after was the coronavirus outbreak.’
Eastman’s mother, Kate, told the station that ‘no one’s actually directly said that he had to be in quarantine’.
‘He actually went through two major airports without any screening or anyone asking where he was coming from. We were shocked,’ she added.
Santa Rosa Junior College canceled their study abroad program in Florence last week.
The college attempted to get all 22 of their study abroad students out of Italy by Wednesday, but some learned on Monday that their flights back to the US had been canceled.
But the students were able to get flights out of Italy on Wednesday morning.
Students returning from Italy will be allowed to complete their studies online.
Eastman’s claim that he wasn’t screened upon arriving to the US isn’t the only one making headlines.
Eastman’s mother, Kate (left), said that ‘no one’s actually directly said that he had to be in quarantine’
Kate said that her son ‘actually went through two major airports without any screening or anyone asking where he was coming from’
In the US, there are more than 1,000 confirmed cases of the virus and 31 deaths
Americans returning on the last flights out of locked-down Milan have said they were stunned to discover that there was still no screening for coronavirus upon arriving in New York on Tuesday.
Dominique Gioia, a 20-year-old student at SUNY New Paltz who was doing a semester abroad in Milan, was supposed to stay through end of May, until New York Governor Andrew Cuomo ordered all SUNY and CUNY students home from programs abroad.
She told DailyMail.com: ‘In Milan airport, they took my temperature and I had to fill out a form. [The airport official] just held a little temperature thing to my forehead and then told me to go. That was it.’
Gioia says she and her fellow students were not screened after landing at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, adding: ‘I was asked one question about why I was in Milan and then I was waved through.
‘I was surprised because I thought this (coronavirus) was a whole big mess. But it doesn’t seem serious the way they were handling it.’
She and about a dozen other fellow students from New Paltz were in Italy programs. Gioia described Milan as a virtual ghost town. ‘The streets were barren,’ she said. ‘They closed everything.’
‘Our program got cut short so we had to leave,’ she added. ‘Our school ended our program while we were there and said if we stayed, they couldn’t help us or anything. And now we’re here. I’m frustrated.’
Elizabeth Ross, another American passenger flying home from Rome after studying for two months in the city, told DailyMail.com: ‘Right as we were going through security they had you stand in a spot and they took your temperature, with the body scanner, very quick, very easy.
‘Before we boarded the flight we did have to fill out a paper that was very basic, it asked personal information, where you had traveled recently and if you had exhibited any symptoms of coronavirus.
Italy’s prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, recently placed the entire country on lockdown in an attempt to stop the spread of the virus. An ecological operator disinfects the Ponte delle Guglie on Wednesday in Venice, Italy
Any movements in and out are allowed only for work reasons, health reasons proven by a medical certificate. A woman walks on an empty subway in Milan, Italy on Wednesday
‘After scanning your boarding pass and right before you got on the plane they scanned again, and then boarded the plane and no trouble from there. On this side, nothing that I know of.’
One traveler, from Rhode Island, said they were not screen in either Italy or the US but simply asked to fill out a health form.
In response to the claims, the US embassy said: ‘Italy has expanded temperature screening to all air travelers upon arrival on all international (including European) and domestic flights arriving in Italy’s major airports as well as upon departure for most non-Schengen countries.’
The State Department has told Americans to ‘reconsider travel to Italy’ but is still yet to issue its strongest warning of ‘do not travel’.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have issued a Level 3 warning – their highest – to avoid all nonessential travel to Italy.
They say on their website: ‘To slow the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) into the United States, CDC is working with state and local public health partners to implement after-travel health precautions.
‘Depending on your travel history, you will be asked to stay home for a period of 14 days from the time you left an area with widespread or ongoing community spread (Level 3 Travel Health Notice).’
There have been more than 121,000 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the world and more than 4,300 deaths.
In the US, there are more than 1,000 confirmed cases of the virus and 31 deaths.