Yokohama (Japan) (AFP)
Japanese authorities were preparing to evacuate some elderly and frail passengers from the cruise ship in quarantine on Friday, provided their tests for the new coronavirus prove negative.
The number of contaminations among the occupants of the liner Diamond Princess increased to 218 Thursday after new analysis results.
But apart from the coronavirus, the state of health of the most fragile passengers was also likely to deteriorate due to the quarantine, which must last until February 19.
Secretary of State for Health Gaku Hashimoto boarded the Diamond Princess on Friday to announce that all passengers considered to be "at high risk" of seeing their general health deteriorate will be tested for the new coronavirus.
Positive cases among them will be hospitalized while those who test negative will have the option - if they wish - of being transferred to government-provided accommodation, Hashimoto added in a statement in English, read by the captain of the ship.
Upon arrival in Yokohama (southwest of Tokyo) on February 3, the Diamond Princess had 3,711 occupants (passengers and crew). However, this figure has dropped since the infected people were evacuated and hospitalized, as were some people who needed medical treatment for other reasons.
Ten people hospitalized from the boat are currently in serious condition, said Health Minister Katsunobu Kato on Friday.
Apart from the 218 positive cases of the Diamond Princess, as well as that of a quarantine officer contaminated while he was on board, Japan had 33 other cases of coronavirus infection on its territory on Friday.
An octogenarian also died in hospital, recognized as carrying the coronavirus after her death. According to media reports, it was the mother-in-law of a taxi driver, also infected.
A man in Chiba, in the large eastern suburbs of Tokyo, was also newly tested positive, as well as a doctor and a patient in a hospital in Wakayama (western Japan). The establishment was closed to visitors and all medical personnel were now required to undergo tests.
Japanese executive spokesman Yoshihide Suga said on Friday that there was "not enough epidemiological evidence" to back the spread of the epidemic in Japan.
© 2020 AFP