Coronavirus: agonising delay for Hongkongers stranded on cruise ship in Japan with Canadian citizens given priority, as four more cases confirmed locally

A second batch of more than 100 Hongkongers stranded aboard the coronavirus-stricken Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan were unable to return home as scheduled on Thursday night because of a delay to allow Canada to get its citizens out.

Ten more Hongkongers on the ship were taken ill with Covid-19, even as their government-chartered flight home was being pushed back to the next day because of competition for flying slots, and the first group of 106 who arrived in Hong Kong in the morning were spending their first night under quarantine in a repurposed public housing estate.

As they were adjusting to the prospect of another 14 days in confinement after more than two weeks trapped on the cruise ship, Hong Kong confirmed four new cases of Covid-19 in the city, taking the total to 69.

In a series of firsts, one patient was someone who had tested negative for the coronavirus but still contracted the disease and recovered on his own. Another was a police officer who was infected after attending a party on Tuesday with about 60 others who will also have to be quarantined.

Mainland China reported 394 new confirmed cases – the lowest daily tally since January 23 when the city at the epicentre of the outbreak, Wuhan, first went into lockdown – taking the total to 74,576 as of Thursday night. The death toll stood at 2,118.

As the Hong Kong government was scrambling to bring home residents still trapped on the Diamond Princess, Director of Immigration Erick Tsang Kwok-wai said Thursday’s evacuation had to be scrapped because the Japanese side wanted to give priority to Canada’s rescue operation.