Coronavirus: South Jersey Woman Stuck In Peru Hostel Finally Coming Home Along With 6 Other Americans
CHERRY HILL, N.J. (CBS) -- A young New Jersey woman is finally flying home from Peru after being trapped for days in quarantine over coronavirus concerns. The plane is expected to land in Miami on Friday night, bringing seven Americans back home after three weeks in Peru.
Kacie Brandenburg had been quarantined in a Cusco room in Peru with five other people for over a week after going to the South American country for vacation on March 12.
When two guests tested positive for COVID-19, the Peruvian government shut the hostel down.
"We're supposed to be three meters apart, but there's literally no way," she said.
Kacie Brandenburg's asthma medication ran out days ago, but now, they're on their way home after her father has been working the phones for weeks.
"My goal over the last two weeks, week-and-a-half has just been to get these kids back on U.S. soil," Mike Brandenburg, Kacie's father, said. "The State Department told me if they didn't get our group out by tomorrow, the chances are they wouldn't be able to get anybody out again until April 21."
His calls reached New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez, the senior Democrat of the Foreign Relations Committee.
"Local authorities were making decisions that trapped these people in the hostel instead of working to get them out," Menendez said. "So you have to start at the top and make your way to local authorities."
Menendez says they've intervened in many of these cases and that in New Jersey alone, there are hundreds of citizens stuck abroad.
He suggests registering with embassies when you travel, just in case.
"I don't know what I'm going to say to her. I don't know what kind of mood she's going to be in," Mike Brandenberg said. "I don't know if she's not going to want to talk to people for two weeks. I think she may self-quarantine for two weeks just to be away from everybody."
Brandenberg says his daughter will drive to Orlando, where she does plan on self-quarantining after being in the hostel.
For himself? Brandenberg says the first thing he'll do after talking to his daughter will be taking a nap.
