TOKYO, Feb 12, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – A further 39 people on board the Diamond
Princess cruise ship off the Japan coast have tested positive for the new
coronavirus, authorities said Wednesday, as thousands more steel themselves
for a second week in quarantine.
The ship that originally had over 3,700 passengers and crew on board has
become the largest single cluster of the newly named COVID-19 disease outside
its origin in China, where it has killed more than 1,100 people.
“Out of 53 new test results, 39 people were found positive,” Japanese
Health Minister Katsunobu Kato told reporters, bringing the total of cases on
board to 174. In addition, a quarantine officer was also found to be infected
with the virus.
Kato added that: “At this point, we have confirmed that four people among
those who are hospitalised are in a serious condition, either on a ventilator
or in an intensive care unit.”
The Diamond Princess has been in quarantine since arriving off the Japanese
coast early last week after the virus was detected in a former passenger who
got off the ship last month in Hong Kong.
Those who remain on the ship have been asked to stay inside their cabins
and allowed only briefly onto open decks — as long as they wear face masks.
Passengers have also been asked to keep a distance from each other when
outside, and given thermometers to regularly monitor their temperatures.
When the boat arrived off Japan, authorities initially tested nearly 300
people of the 3,711 aboard for the virus, gradually evacuating dozens who
were infected to local medical facilities.
In recent days, testing has expanded and so far 492 people have been
tested, mostly those showing symptoms or who have had close contact with a
confirmed positive case.
“Currently we have the capacity to conduct up to 300 tests per day, but we
are working… so that by the last day of the incubation period, February 18,
we will be able to test up to 1,000,” government spokesman Yoshihide Suga
told reporters at a regular briefing.
– ‘Anxiety uprisen’ –
The ship is expected to remain in quarantine until February 19 — 14 days
after the isolation period began. Officials do not expect new cases to affect
this schedule.
Aside from the cruise ship, Japan has identified 28 cases, including at
least nine from evacuation flights that brought Japanese citizens out of the
Chinese city of Wuhan, where the virus originated.
Some of the passengers evacuated from Wuhan are expected to be released
soon from self-quarantine — possibly by Wednesday evening.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced that Japan was expanding its ban on
travellers to the province of Zhejiang. Previously, a ban was imposed only on
passengers from Hubei region, where the disease originated.
On board the ship, the captain told passengers in a message live broadcast
via social media: “This is an ever-changing situation and decisions are being
made daily to ensure we are following the latest and best public health
guidelines from the authorities.”
He apologised for the “periodic service disruptions” to the internet,
adding: “Diamond Princess has more bandwidth than any ship in the world and
at the same time, more mobile devices than ever before connected on a ship.”
British passenger Sally Abel said in a video streamed on Facebook that:
“You sit out on the balcony and you hear people coughing all the way along.”
“It is nothing like a holiday but it is complete relaxation,” she added.
Another passenger on the ship, Yardley Wong, tweeted: “Anxiety uprisen”
from the new cases, adding that she did not know when it would be her turn or
that of her family.
But another cruiser said the captain’s actions were keeping stress levels
on board the ship manageable.
“One reason why a panic has not occurred among passengers is the captain’s
leadership. Regular announcements of information, answering passengers’
requests by consulting quarantine officers, walking on the deck, apologising
for delayed medicine distribution,” the passenger tweeted.
“I want this kind of man to be our country’s leader.”