Coronavirus: infected taxi driver had contact with Diamond Princess passengers in Japan

The driver in her 60s was believed to have driven passengers when the ship made a port call in Okinawa on February 1

Meanwhile, elderly Diamond Princess passengers who have tested negative for the virus have been allowed to disembark to continue their quarantine onshore

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A bus believed to carry elderly passengers of the Diamond Princess cruise ship leaves the cruise terminal in Yokohama on February 14, 2020. Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 4:32pm, 14 Feb 2020Updated: 10:16pm, 14 Feb 2020

A taxi driver believed to have had contact with passengers from the luxury Diamond Princess Cruise was among four new coronavirus cases seen in Japan on Friday, as the first passengers from the quarantined vessel were allowed to disembark.

The driver was highly likely to have come into contact with someone on the Diamond Princess when it made a stop in Naha, the capital of Okinawa Prefecture, on February 1, said the local government.

Okinawa Governor Denny Tamaki on Friday said that the driver, in her 60s, was currently being treated at a designated medical facility and she was in a stable condition.

Officials also confirmed two new cases in Tokyo, both of whom had contact with a taxi driver in his 70s whose infection was announced on Thursday. One of the new cases was a worker on a boat where the Tokyo taxi driver had held a party on January 18 with his wife, the Tokyo government said.

The fourth person was a farmer in his 70s who was treated at a hospital in western Japan where a doctor was recently confirmed to have been infected, local officials said on Friday, adding that the two apparently never had any contact.

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