Feb. 19 (UPI) — Hundreds of passengers of a coronavirus-stricken cruise ship docked off Japan’s eastern coast began disembarking Wednesday after their 14-day quarantine expired.
The Diamond Princess, with 2,666 passengers and 1,045 crew members, has been anchored in Yokohama Port since Feb. 3, after a former passenger was confirmed sickened with a virus that originated in early December in China, where it has killed over 2,000 people and has since spread across the globe.
The vessel was placed under a two-week quarantine, during which the virus spread among its passengers, infecting at least 545 people — more than half of all confirmed cases outside of China.
The United States and South Korea have already repatriated nationals who were passengers of the cruise ship while several others are chartering flights to evacuate their citizens.
Ship operator Princess Cruises said in a Wednesday update that passengers who are disembarking from the ship will be those who are not taking government repatriation flights home.
“The disembark process will be undertaken over several consecutive days since they will be tested and the testing and results require two to three days to complete,” the cruise line company said. “A certificate that indicates a negative COVID-19 test result is expected to be granted by Japanese health authorities to exit the ship.”
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention commended Japan for its quarantine efforts but said in an update that “it may not have been sufficient to prevent transmission among individuals on the ship.”
The rate of infection among the passengers represents an ongoing public health risk and the remaining Americans on board the vessel will be required to wait another 14 days without exhibiting symptoms or testing positive for COVID-19 before they will be allowed to board flights for the United States, the federal health agency said.
“If an individual from this cruise arrives in the United States before the 14-day period ends, they will still be subject to a mandatory quarantine,” it said, stating there could be more infections among the Diamond Princess’ remaining passengers.
The United States returned 328 Americans from the cruise ship earlier this week leaving just under 100 on board.
Canada, Australia and Hong Kong on Wednesday were continuing to arrange chartered flights for their citizens, Princess Diamond said.
Canada said Tuesday that an aircraft was in the air heading for Japan to repatriate its citizens with plans of returning to North America on Thursday. It did not state how many of the 256 Canadian passengers of the Diamond Princess would be evacuated, though the 43 who have tested positive for the virus will remain in the hospital in Japan.
Those who return will be placed in a second 14-day quarantine at the NAV Canada Training Institute in Cornwall, Ontario.
Passengers who suffer from symptoms or test positive for the virus will not be admitted on the flight, Canada said.
Hong Kong said it has 352 residents on board the cruise ship, including 50 infected with the disease, and it had a team in Japan working to return them to the semi-autonomous region of China.
The Hong Kong government said those passengers who return will also be subjected to a two-week quarantine.
“This is an imperative for safeguarding the health of the passengers concerned and the health of their families and for preventing and controlling the spread of the epidemic,” it said in a statement.
Australia also said it was to evacuate more than 200 nationals on Wednesday from the ship, who will be placed under a two-week quarantine on their return.
Britain has said it was also working on returning its citizens on the ship.
On Wednesday morning, Chinese health officials said the death toll from COVID-19 rose by 136 deaths that occurred in the previous 24 hours to 2,004 while the number of confirmed cases of the virus climbed by 1,749 to 74,185.
Globally, the death toll stood at a minimum of 2,009 as France, the Philippines, Japan, Hong Kong and Taiwan have each reported a death outside mainland China.
