Hyderabad: Six Indians are among the more than 2,500 passengers stuck on the novel coronavirus-stricken cruise ship ‘Diamond Princess’, docked at Yoko-homa port in Japan since February 4. With 61 of its 2,666 passengers testing positive for the disease till Friday, the cruise ship has emerged as the second largest cluster for the disease outside of Wuhan, where the virus emerged in China.
Princes Cruises, the co-mpany that runs Diamond Princess among others, confirmed to Deccan Chronicle that six Indian passengers are onboard. According to reports from Japan till Friday, of the 263 passengers tested by the Japanese health authorities, 61 tested positive for the coronavirus infection.
Forty one were informed on Friday that they were infected while 20 others were informed earlier — in two batches of 10 each.
When contacted about the presence of Indian passengers onboard the ship, Princes Cruises, in an email response, said: “There are six Indian passengers onboard.” Howe-ver, the company did not release any further information on the identity of the Indian passengers.
India on Friday officially announced that there were “many Indian crew-members and passengers” on board Diamond Princess but that “none have tested positive” as per the latest information with the Indian Embassy in Tokyo. But fears are mounting following reports of at least 61 people of other nationalities testing positive.
In an update posted on its website, Princess Cruises said it can confirm the nationalities of the 41 people who were tested positive on Friday: Argentina (one); Australia (five); Canada (five), Japan (21); UK (one) and US (eight). “Earlier tests confirmed that passengers from Australia, Canada, Taiwan, New Zealand, Japan, Hong Kong, as well as one crew member from Philippines were infected by the disease,” it posted.
According to the company, the Japanese ministry of health has confirmed this is the last batch to be tested and the quarantine will end on February 19, barring unforeseen developments. “The Japanese government is also
providing our ship and team members additional manpower support,” it said.
