TOKYO, Feb 5 (NNN-NHK) – Japan quarantined a cruise ship carrying 3,711 people and was testing passengers on Tuesday (Feb 4), for the coronavirus, after a former passenger was diagnosed with the illness in Hong Kong.
Eight people on the vessel, which arrived at Yokohama Bay on Monday, have symptoms such as fever, top government spokesman, Yoshihide Suga, said.
Television footage showed images of several quarantine officers entering the Diamond Princess cruise ship, at the port of Yokohama on Monday evening, to check the health of all 2,666 passengers and 1,045 crew members.
The move came after an 80-year-old passenger, who disembarked on Jan 25 in Hong Kong, tested positive for the deadly virus.
The man “did not visit a medical centre inside the ship while he was sailing with us,” cruise operator, Carnival Japan, said in a statement.
“According to the hospital where he is staying, his condition is stable and infection was not found among his family members who sailed with him,” the statement said.
A woman in her twenties, who was sailing with her mother on the ship said that, all passengers “were asked to stay in their rooms to wait for virus tests.”
The vessel’s departure from Yokohama would be delayed by at least 24 hours to Wednesday (today) or later, Carnival Japan said.– NNN-NHK
