Coronavirus: at least 40 Americans infected on the "Diamond Princess"

Text by: RFI Follow

At least forty Americans have been infected with the coronavirus on board the Diamond Princess, which is in quarantine off Japan. 335 passengers and crew members contracted the coronavirus on board. Washington has started to evacuate its nationals and several other foreign countries are preparing to do so.

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The quarantine of Americans infected with the coronavirus will be treated in hospitals in Japan. The state of health of patients is variable, said the director of the National Institute of Infectious Diseases. " You may be affected and have minimal symptoms, but you remain contagious. Or you can have a serious lung infection that requires hospitalization and perhaps even a heavier intervention , "explained the director, without giving details on the date of screening or treatment of patients in particular.

The Diamond Princess has been in quarantine since February 5 with its 3,711 passengers and crew members, after a positive test on a cruise ship landed in Hong Kong.

This Sunday, 355 people were declared infected and hospitalized. It was not immediately clear whether this count included the Americans. Faced with the worsening of the situation and taking into account the doubts about the effectiveness of the measures taken, several States have decided to evacuate their nationals who appear healthy to place them fourteen days in quarantine in their respective countries. The United States thus as of Saturday addressed to the approximately 350 American passengers a letter to offer them this option.

► Read also: Coronavirus: aboard the “Diamond Princess”, passengers dream of freedom

A large-scale evacuation operation

Hour by hour, the list of the number of foreign cruise passengers to evacuate from the Diamond Princess is getting longer, explains our correspondent in Tokyo , Bruno Duval : at least 350 Americans, 330 Hong Kongers, 250 Canadians ... Without counting several dozen Australians and Taiwanese: the governments of these two countries are negotiating with Tokyo. Italy also announced this Sunday its intention to quickly evacuate its nationals.

The United States has already started its evacuation operation. On the night of Sunday to Monday local time, about thirty Japanese army buses picked up American cruise passengers from the port of Yokohama. Two charter flights chartered by Washington were then to leave Tokyo International Airport Haneda bound for the United States, where they will have to observe a quarantine of 14 days.

" If people start to develop symptoms on the plane, they will be sidelined, " said the director of the National Institute of Infectious Diseases.

Opaque management

The take-off time for these aircraft has not yet been specified. Nor the practical details of this large-scale operation: the Japanese government communicates very little on the subject, reports our journalist Bruno Duval . From the start, he has managed this health crisis with opacity: this is what he is accused of by social networks.

It is probably also because the Japanese authorities are overwhelmed by the situation. The number of contaminations soared this weekend, in the country with 59 cases, including an octogenarian who died. On board the Diamond Princess , another tour de force will have to be carried out: more than 2,000 cruise passengers to be tested for coronavirus before Wednesday, the day when the quarantine ends.

A sick American cruise ship in Cambodia

Another country, another cruise destroyed by the virus. In Cambodia, a passenger from MS Westerdam was finally tested positive for the coronavirus. The 83-year-old American woman was taken into care in Malaysia after showing the first symptoms of the disease during her stopover. Six other passengers are now under observation in Malaysia. News that would have gone well with the Cambodian government, the only one to have accepted to receive this cruise ship stranded at sea for 11 days. Five countries had previously rejected the ship.

The tests were carried out twice by Malaysian authorities. The two returned positive to the coronavirus, reports our correspondent in Phnom Penh, Juliette Buchez . Malaysia also announces that no other MS Westerdam traveler will now be allowed to enter its territory.

Passengers on the cruise ship embarked in Singapore in mid-January without realizing the scale of the coronavirus epidemic. Last Wednesday, February 12, no one was showing symptoms when Cambodia finally accepted the ship in its port of Sihanoukville.

The 2,257 people on board began to be evacuated this Friday, February 14, and some have already returned to their country.

Disembarkation interrupted

Despite a variable incubation period, only 20 passengers with various ailments had been tested for coronavirus. All were negative. The landing has been interrupted since the announcement of the first positive test this Saturday evening, February 15.

Almost 1,000 passengers and crew remain on board the MS Westerdam. Others have left the boat and are currently in Cambodia. Some said they would now have to stay confined to their hotel room and take exams.

To date, only one case of coronavirus was officially diagnosed in Cambodia in a Chinese tourist in January. Supported on the spot and cured, he recently returned to China.

► Also read: Coronavirus: contamination down for the third consecutive day

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• coronavirus
• Japan
• United States
• Health and Medicine

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