10 Coronavirus Cases Confirmed on Cruise Ship Quarantined in Japan

A Princess Cruise ship in Yokohama on July 16, 2019. Behrouz Mehri/AFP via Getty Images

Ten people from a cruise ship that’s currently quarantined off the coast of Japan tested positive for the coronavirus that has sickened numerous people across China and elsewhere, said Japanese health officials.

Japan’s health minister, Katsunobu Kato, said Wednesday that the 10 people who were on the Diamond Princess were taken to a medical facility for isolation. The ship, with 3,700 people on board, was kept in quarantine after an 80-year-old passenger from Hong Kong was found to have contracted the virus, Kyodo News reported.

On the ship, 273 passengers and crew were believed to have had close contact with the Hong Kong passenger before taking a test to confirm the virus, according to Kato. Ten of 31 of those people were confirmed to have contracted the virus, while the other 242 passengers are undergoing testing.

After the new cases were confirmed, the ship will have to now remain quarantined for two weeks, Kato said.

Princess Cruise said that of the 10 confirmed cases, three are from Japan, three are from Hong Kong, two are Australians, and one is American, News Corp reported.

Workers in protective gear transfer a person under a blue sheet from the Diamond Princess cruise ship onto a Japan Coast Guard boat in Yokohama on Feb. 5, 2020. STR/Jiji Press/AFP via Getty Images

“Princess Cruises will continue to fully cooperate with and follow the instructions of global medical authorities and the Japanese government,” the company said in a statement, NBC News reported. Those who are quarantined will have Internet, phone access, and will be made comfortable.

Two Princess Cruise trips that were slated to leave Yokohama, Japan, on Tuesday and later this month have been canceled in light of the virus, according to the firm.

Chinese regime officials said the virus was first detected in Wuhan, located in the central Chinese province of Hubei, triggering mass quarantines and lockdowns. But some locals have suggested that the situation on the ground is far worse than what the regime is telling the rest of the world. In one example, family members of a couple from Wuhan told The Epoch Times that they were denied treatment at five hospitals after showing symptoms of coronavirus.

“None of the hospitals would take their blood for diagnostic testing. They were told the supply of test kits was low and that they were considered to be suspected cases of Wuhan pneumonia. Hospitals will not give a patient a hospital bed if he hasn’t been confirmed through testing. The patient has to isolate himself at home,” the family member said.

Cruise ship Diamond Princess anchored off the Yokohama Port, Japan, on Feb. 3, 2020. Kyodo News via AP

The World Health Organization last week declared the outbreak a global public health emergency, while the United States has also declared a public health emergency and implemented travel restrictions on people who recently went to China.

So far, 11 cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in the United States, with six patients in California, one in Washington state, one in Massachusetts, one in Arizona, and two in Illinois. On Monday, two patients in Northern California were rushed to a hospital in San Francisco after their symptoms worsened.