The anxiety begins to win cruise passengers. After four days of quarantine on board the liner "Diamond Princess", the 3,700 passengers confined to their cabin because of the coronavirus contamination on board, are beginning to find the time long. The number of patients has tripled there in recent days, reaching 61 people. More than forty have already been landed in the direction of hospitals around Yokohama Bay, near Tokyo.
A 90 minute walk on the bridge a day ...
"There are so many people on the boat, I even heard that one could be contaminated in the cabins, that the virus would pass by the air-conditioning", tells, worried, a visibly ill-informed passenger (because the virus does not can thus be transmitted) to the microphone of Europe 1. "We all want to go ashore." "Passengers in windowless cabins are now allowed to go outside for an hour and a half on deck," says another passenger. But this daily walk is done under strict conditions.
... in difficult conditions
"You must wear a mask and gloves, stay at least one meter from each other, only in a small group, and under the supervision of the staff," he explains. Japanese, British, Canadian or Russian, all passengers were ordered to take their temperature regularly and to report to the doctors if necessary. For them, the wait is likely to be still long, since the "Diamond Princess" must be immobilized until February 19, or 14 days of quarantine, the incubation time of the nCoV-2019.
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And to provide complete autonomy until then, the liner was allowed to refuel on Thursday, stocking up on food, masks, and thermometers.