ANOTHER 88 people aboard a cruise ship off Japan have tested positive for the coronavirus, authorities said Tuesday, as those free of the disease hoped they were spending their last night on board before disembarking.<\/p>\n
The new cases take the total from the Diamond Princess to 542 \u2014 easily the biggest cluster outside the epicentre in China \u2014 as the cruise ship has proved an especially virulent breeding ground for the virus despite quarantine.<\/p>\n
The new cases will be sent to specialised hospitals, the ministry said in a statement, without giving further details such as their nationalities.<\/p>\n
Sixty-five of those who tested positive were not yet showing symptoms.<\/p>\n
Britain became the latest country to offer its citizens a way off the boat, saying it was \u201cworking to organise a flight back to the UK\u201d as doubts grow over the effectiveness of the quarantine measures with every spike in positive cases.<\/p>\n
Canada, Australia, Hong Kong and South Korea have already said they will evacuate their citizens from the ship, following the lead from the United States, which flew home around 300 Americans on Monday \u2014 including more than a dozen who had tested positive.
\n\u201cWe have done tests for everyone (on the ship),\u201d Japanese Health Minister Katsunobu Kato told reporters.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome results have already come out\u2026 and for those whose test results are already clear, we are working to prepare disembarkation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
In a letter sent to passengers, authorities explained that some test results would take time to process and that therefore \u201cwe plan the disembarkation to take place from 19 to 21 February\u201d.
\n\u201cIf you and your roommate are both negative and have no fever of respiratory symptoms, you will be able to prepare for disembarkation,\u201d the letter said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ANOTHER 88 people aboard a cruise ship off Japan have tested positive for the coronavirus, authorities said Tuesday, as those free of the disease hoped they were spending their last night on board before disembarking. The new cases take the total from the Diamond Princess to 542 \u2014 easily the biggest cluster outside the epicentre […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":19220,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,12],"tags":[792,1279],"class_list":{"0":"post-19632","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-all-news","8":"category-policy","9":"tag-china-zimbabwe-relations","10":"tag-coronavirus-in-zimbabwe"},"yoast_head":"\n