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Some 3,000 people on the Diamond Princess will begin disembarking from February 19, 2020. Photo: AP

Coronavirus: 79 more cases aboard Diamond Princess cruise ship as quarantine ends and passengers leave

  • The disembarkation of nearly 3,000 people is expected to take at least three days, according to the Japanese government
  • In the first group, some 500 mainly elderly passengers who have tested negative for the virus left the ship after final check-ups with doctors

Another 79 cases of the deadly new coronavirus were confirmed on the Diamond Princess cruise ship on Wednesday, hours after passengers began disembarking from the vessel that has been moored off Japan for two weeks.

The latest confirmed cases take the overall number of infections aboard the Diamond Princess to 621.

Passengers began leaving the ship after a controversial quarantine period in Yokohama that raised questions about the Japanese government’s response to the coronavirus outbreak.

Kentaro Iwata, a professor at the infectious diseases division of Kobe University, blasted the on-ship quarantine as a “major failure, a mistake”.

“It is highly likely secondary infections occurred,” Iwata said, adding scepticism from abroad of the quarantine was “only natural”.

He later said in a video published online that he was self-quarantining after a brief visit to the ship, where he raised major concerns about the procedures on board. “It was completely chaotic,” he said.

He said he was so concerned at what he saw on the ship during a brief visit on Tuesday that he has placed himself in a 14-day quarantine to avoid infecting his family.

“There was no distinction between the green zone, which is free of infection, and the red zone, which is potentially contaminated by the virus,” he added.

“I was in Africa dealing with the Ebola outbreak. I was in other countries dealing with the cholera outbreak. I was in China in 2003 to deal with Sars ... I never had fear of getting infection myself.

“But inside Diamond Princess, I was so scared ... because there was no way to tell where the virus is.”

The disembarkation of nearly 3,000 people was expected to take three days at least, according to the government. In the first group, some 500 mainly elderly passengers who have tested negative for the virus left the ship after final check-ups with doctors.

The cruise ship was initially carrying 3,711 passengers and crew from more than 50 countries and regions. The number of cases confirmed on board increased day by day. Those found to be infected with the pneumonia-causing virus have been transported to medical facilities.

Test samples have now been collected from all passengers, the health ministry said.

Disembarking passengers will be transported to Yokohama and other train stations in the area.

Those who have had close contact with infected people on the ship will be kept on board for the time being for further monitoring even though they have tested negative. The ship’s operator will decide when crew who have not been infected will leave the ship, according to the ministry.

With some passengers planning to stay on the ship it was unclear when their quarantines would end.

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Nathalie MacDermott, a medical expert at King’s College London, recommended a further 14-day self-quarantine for those leaving.

“Given the circumstances on board the Diamond Princess, those passengers leaving the boat should be managed in a similar manner to those individuals departing a highly affected city or region,” she said.

South Korea has evacuated five people from the Diamond Princess. Photo: Yonhap via Reuters
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Tuesday there were 220 Australians on board. A total of 169 Australians would be evacuated, 36 have the coronavirus and will remain on the ship, and another 15 have elected to stay on board. Those evacuated will be flown to Darwin, where they will be quarantined for 14 days, he said.

An Australian passenger said Australians had been told they would be pre-screened starting on Wednesday morning and taken to Tokyo’s Haneda airport in the evening for an expected departure early on Thursday.

“They told us to pack warm weather clothes for the two weeks in Darwin but who will have that after a cruise in the Japanese winter,” passenger Vicki Presland said.

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South Korea on Wednesday morning evacuated seven people to Seoul, including six nationals and one Japanese spouse.

The Philippines’ foreign minister on Wednesday said the embassy in Tokyo had been instructed to “immediately repatriate” citizens from the ship.

“It’s our duty to take care of our Overseas Filipinos,” Teodoro Locsin Jnr wrote on Twitter.

A captain’s announcement on the liner said that Hong Kong passengers would also be evacuated over the next 24 hours and that according to information received, a Canadian charter flight would arrive on Friday morning.

Italy and Taiwan were also preparing to evacuate their nationals.

The United States evacuated some 300 nationals on Monday on two chartered flights.

Media from the US and elsewhere have raised questions about Japan’s response to the spread of the virus on the ship.

The Japanese government says it was appropriate to quarantine the vessel, a position endorsed by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Aside from those on the vessel, the number of infections confirmed in Japan has risen to 68.

Coronavirus: how Diamond Princess cruise ship became a ‘super spreading’ site

The quarantine at Yokohama Port, south of Tokyo, began on February 5 after a passenger who disembarked in Hong Kong on January 25 was found to be infected with the new coronavirus, which originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan.
After departing Yokohama on January 20, the Diamond Princess stopped at Kagoshima, southwestern Japan before arriving in Hong Kong.
It then travelled to Vietnam and Taiwan before calling at Okinawa in Japan and then returning to Yokohama on February 3, according to its operator.
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