Two Australians among 10 passengers diagnosed with coronavirus on cruise
Two Australians are among the 10 on board a cruise ship who have tested positive for the deadly coronavirus after it went into lockdown on Tuesday.
Foreign Minister Marise Payne confirmed during question time in the Senate the Australians were infected as the cruise docked in the Japanese port of Yokohama, as there are fears the number could rapidly grow onboard the vessel.
The 10 confirmed cases were among 31 results from 273 people tested so far, Japanese health minister Katsunobu Kato told a news conference on Wednesday morning.
The nationalities of all 10 infected have not been confirmed. It is understood roughly half of the passengers on board are Japanese.
There are around 3700 passengers and crew aboard the Carnival Corp ship altogether.
It was not immediately clear how many people had been screened and how many would undergo testing for the virus.
Health officials were testing people who had shown symptoms such as fevers or those who had been in close contact with such people, public broadcaster NHK reported.
A health ministry official said not everyone would be tested with PCR (polymerase chain reaction) kits because it was too time-consuming and deemed unnecessary.
The health checks began on Monday evening after an 80-year-old Hong Kong man who sailed on the vessel last month tested positive for the Wuhan coronavirus.
Photographs and video posted on Twitter by a passenger with the handle @daxa_tw showed masked health workers clad in blue plastic gowns walking down empty corridors on the Diamond Princess as well as views of deserted lounges and a barren deck.
検疫始まりましたー それぞれの部屋で体温はかるっぽい。そしてDMとか直接とかちょこちょこ怒られているw アップするなと #ダイヤモンドプリンセス #コロナウイルス pic.twitter.com/6NvOPgMaaR
— だぁ(ダイヤモンドプリンセス乗船中) (@daxa_tw) February 3, 2020
Carnival Japan, the local unit of the British-American cruise operator, said on Tuesday the turnaround of the ship had been delayed by about 24 hours. It was not immediately available for comment on Wednesday.
Carnival’s Princess Cruises Japan said on Tuesday that cruises scheduled to depart from Yokohama and the western Japanese port of Kobe this week would be cancelled because of delays related to the coronavirus checks.
The new cases bring the total number of confirmed cases to 33 in Japan. The epidemic, which originated in China’s Hubei province, has killed hundreds of people and infected more than 10,000 so far.
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