NE NEWS SERVICE
TOKYO, FEB 21
Two elderly passengers became the first people from aboard a cruise ship moored near Tokyo to die of the coronavirus, the Japanese government said on Thursday, as hundreds more passengers disembarked after two weeks’ quarantine.
The two patients who died are 87-year-old man and an 84-year-old woman. They had been taken off the cruise ship last week and died in hospital. The man had pre-existing bronchial asthma and a history of angina treatment, the health ministry said in a statement, but the woman had no known conditions before the coronavirus infection. The direct cause of her death was pneumonia.
The news of the first deaths from the ship came as a further 13 positive tests were revealed, taking the total cases from the vessel to 634 — easily the biggest coronavirus cluster outside mainland China, where the outbreak began. Public broadcaster NHK reported that 27 people from the ship were in serious condition.
The quarantine operation has sparked criticism of Japan’s authorities just months before Tokyo is due to host the Summer Olympics.
About 1,000 Japanese released from the ship after testing negative for the virus were permitted to go straight home this week. Other countries are flying their citizens’ home but subjecting them to two more weeks of quarantine on arrival.’ Those who have shared a room with infected people are being kept on board under further quarantine.
Some experts, however, worry returnees could infect others. Findings published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Wednesday suggest the virus may be spread more easily than previously thought, including by carriers who have no symptoms.
The health ministry official said the United States had taken the decision to risk bringing home infected passengers, and it was up to each country to quarantine people entering their ports as appropriate. – Agencies
