Japanese city on high alert after ship quarantined at port
The city of Naha in Okinawa prefecture, where a cruise ship is quarantined at the Yokohama Port, has rang alarm bells after the vessel made a stopover there last Saturday.
Health officials put the city in Japan’s southern-most island on high alert after Naha municipal government spokesman Tadashi Nakasone told The
Japan Times that 13 passengers had left the ship without returning after it docked on the island’s port.
He said 2,600 of the 3,711 passengers and crew members on board the Diamond Princess had temporarily gone sightseeing ashore in the city, raising fears of spreading the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) to local residents.
Such a scenario arose a few days ago when a bus driver in Japan contracted the virus after ferrying tourists from China. The driver never visited Wuhan, China, the epicentre of the outbreak.
“Our staff members are verifying whether any passenger who left the Diamond Princess had spread the virus while it was docked in the city.
“For now, no health issues have been detected or reported when the cruise ship left Naha.
“All passengers were screened for the coronavirus. None of those who disembarked the ship or left it temporarily had a fever or suspicious symptoms before its departure to Yokohama on Saturday,” Nakasone said, adding that the vessel arrived in Naha at 1.30pm on that day and departed for Yokohama nearly 10 hours later.
His comments came hours after Japanese authorities found that 10 out of 31 screened on board the vessel tested positive for the 2019-nCoV.
The results fuelled uneasiness among officials who feared the number of victims could go higher as the virus could spread rapidly after an incubation period of two weeks.
The 10, who had symptoms of fever and coughing, sought treatment at four hospitals in Kanagawa perfecture.
Health Minister Katsunobu Kato said the remaining crew members and passengers were confined to the ship for at least a fortnight.
Ship operator Princess Cruises said the 10 victims, aged 50 to 80, comprised three Japanese, two Australians, three from Hong Kong, one from the United States and one Filipino.
Of the 3,711 on board, 2,666 were passengers, with half of them Japanese, and the remaining 1,045 were crew members from 56 countries.
The Diamond Princess became a subject of medical scrutiny when a man, 80, who disembarked in Hong Kong on Jan 25 after boarding the vessel in Yokohama, tested positive for the virus.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said they were going to adopt measures to prevent the virus from spreading.
He said the health of the cruise liner’s passengers and crew members was a top priority.