Virus, 35 Italians on ship blocked in Japan

Posted on: 06/02/2020 12:26

There are 35 Italian citizens, between passengers and crew, aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship, quarantined since Tuesday in the port of Yokohama. This was reported by sources from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, according to whom there are currently no compatriots among the cases of coronaviruses on board.

The Farnesina Crisis Unit and the Italian Embassy in Tokyo, in close connection with the local authorities, follow the case with the utmost attention and are in contact with our compatriots to provide any possible assistance. The situation “is obviously managed by the Japanese country. Our role is to find as much information as possible to give news to family members about their conditions,” explained Deputy Minister of Health Pierpaolo Sileri. “In constant contact with the 35 compatriots on board the Japanese ship blocked at the port of Yokohama. The Foreign Ministry’s Crisis Unit and our Embassy in Japan are monitoring the case with great attention. Maximum effort to protect our compatriots” , the Foreign Minister writes on Twitter Luigi Di Maio.

4,000 thermometers and 7,200 masks were brought to the Diamond Princess, said the head of the Japanese government’s cabinet, Yoshihide Suga, stating that basic necessities such as medicines will be delivered within the day while starting from tomorrow everything else required by the over 3,700 passengers and crew members, who must remain in quarantine for 14 days from last Tuesday. Meanwhile, Hiroko Otsubo, deputy director general of the Tokyo Ministry of Health, reported that the 10 people who tested positive for coronavirus tests today are all passengers and have shown symptoms of the infection. The ten – in addition to the nine passengers and a crew member who tested positive yesterday – were transferred to various hospitals in Kanagawa prefecture. “Quarantine procedures continue – he said – and we ask passengers to stay in their rooms as long as possible, taking the necessary precautions to prevent infection.” If they come out of the booths, they have to wear masks “all the time”, he added.

3,711 passengers, 2,666 passengers – about half of them Japanese – and 1,045 crew members travel on board the Carnival-owned Diamond Princess. In total, 273 people have so far been tested for the new coronavirus, and consideration is being given to whether others should be tested.

Among the 10 people whose infection was confirmed yesterday, according to the company in a statement, there are two Australian passengers, three Japanese, three from Hong Kong, an American and a Filipino crew member. “These 10 people will be disembarked by the Japanese coast guard and transferred to local hospitals. The ship will remain in quarantine in Yokohama. The quarantine period will be at least 14 days as requested by the Ministry of Health.”

The Diamond Princess had left January 20 from the port of Yokohama and, after stops in Hong Kong, Vietnam and Taiwan, had returned to the city of departure two days ago. The 14-day quarantine was decided after an 80-year-old Hong Kong passenger who boarded the ship on January 20 tested positive for the new coronavirus. The man had landed in the former British colony on the 25th, six days later, on February 1st, he had gone to a hospital in Hong Kong, where he had tested positive. In the five days he had stayed on board the Diamond Princess, the company says, he had not shown up in the ship’s surgery to report any symptoms.