Coronavirus: New Jersey Woman Stuck In Peru Hostel With 5 Others During Mandatory Quarantine, Says No End In Sight
HADDONFIELD, N.J. (CBS) -- A Haddonfield father is doing everything he can to help his daughter get out of a Peruvian hostel, where she's currently in quarantine with five other Americans. Kacie Brandenburg spoke with Eyewitness News and says there's no end in sight to her stay.
After two other guests tested positive for COVID-19, Brandenburg has been in mandatory quarantine in a Peruvian hostel in Cusco. The government has shut the hostel down for 28 days.
Brandenburg shares the small space with five other people and says they've been told the quarantine could extend to late April.
"So, they pretty much said you could be stuck here in your rooms for the recommended 23 hours a day to limit exposure until I don't even know," she said.
Brandenburg says they received repatriation flights from the U.S. State Department to return home this weekend, but were turned back by armed military personnel and ordered to return into the hostel.
Also this weekend, she says the first floor of the hostel was cleared of people, but not until they washed down with a disinfectant they were told was diluted chlorine.
"Although Kacie and her people didn't have any direct or indirect contact with these people to the best of our knowledge, it is still a petri dish," Mike Brandenburg, Kacie's father, said.
He says he's been reaching out to Sen. Robert Menendez of the Foreign Relations Committee and the American Citizens Services for help.
Desperate texts from his daughter have pushed him to try everything.
"We're all having good days and bad days. I think the longer it goes, the harder it will get for us. We're trying to stay positive through all of it, but it's hard," Kacie Brandenburg said.
Brandenburg has asthma and preexisting conditions, and says she's now out of her medication.
Eyewitness News reached out to the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and American Citizen Services, but have not heard back.
