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Post by Admin on Feb 17, 2020 18:19:45 GMT
Fourteen U.S. passengers evacuated from a cruise ship in Japan and flown to military bases in California and Texas have tested positive for the new coronavirus, U.S. officials confirm. An additional 44 Americans from the Diamond Princess ship who tested positive for coronavirus will stay in Japan while they recover. Some have been hospitalized, but not all who are infected are sick. The State Department said it was in the process of transporting more than 300 Americans who had been quarantined on the Diamond Princess off Yokohama, Japan, when it got word of the positive tests for the disease now known as COVID-19. "During the evacuation process, after passengers had disembarked the ship and initiated transport to the airport, U.S. officials received notice that 14 passengers, who had been tested 2-3 days earlier, had tested positive for COVID-19," the State Department said in a joint statement with the Department of Health and Human Services.
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Post by Admin on Feb 18, 2020 18:23:21 GMT
A British couple who published video diaries from a cruise ship quarantined off the coast of Japan say they have questioned a positive test for the coronavirus, as the UK government announced plans to evacuate citizens from the ship. David Abel wrote in a Facebook post: “There is going to be a time of quiet. We have been proved positive and leaving for hospital soon. Blessings all xxx.” “Frankly I think this is a setup! We are NOT being taken to a hospital but a hostel. That’s where partners are sent waiting out their quarantine,” he wrote. “No phone, no wifi and no medical facilities. I really am smelling a very big rat here! Waiting for the transfer now.” The Abels – David and his wife, Sally – have given regular updates to the media about conditions onboard the Diamond Princess, which has been quarantined off Japan since 3 February after a passenger who disembarked in Hong Kong tested positive for the coronavirus.
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Post by Admin on Feb 19, 2020 20:53:05 GMT
Hundreds of passengers who tested negative for the new coronavirus have begun leaving a quarantined cruise ship in Japan amid heavy criticism over the country's handling of the outbreak. One Japanese health expert who visited the Diamond Princess at the port in Yokohama said the situation on board was "completely chaotic". US officials said moves to contain the virus "may not have been sufficient". Passengers have described the difficult quarantine situation on the vessel. At least 621 passengers and crew on the Diamond Princess have so far been infected by the Covid-19 virus - the biggest cluster outside mainland China. Hundreds of American passengers were removed and placed in quarantine on Sunday. Britons on the vessel have been told by the UK Foreign Office to stay onboard but register for an evacuation flight expected later this week. A British couple on the ship - who had been giving regular updates to journalists via social media - confirmed on Wednesday they had tested positive for the virus.
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Post by Admin on Feb 21, 2020 5:33:33 GMT
As international criticism mounts of its handling of the Diamond Princess cruise ship crisis, the Japanese government has released data to back up its quarantine strategy. In a report from the government-funded National Institute of Infectious Disease (NIID), newly-released data claims widespread transmission between passengers and crew had dropped after quarantine was put in place. "Transmission toward the end of the quarantine period, which is scheduled to end for most passengers on 19 Feb, appears to have occurred mostly among crew or within passenger cabins," the report said. The report showed that the onset of confirmed cases of Covid-19 peaked on February 7 before sinking to zero by February 15. The report said cases among crew peaked on February 13. “The decline in the number of confirmed cases, based on reported onset dates, implies that the quarantine intervention was effective in reducing transmission among passengers," it said. At least 626 cases of the coronavirus have been linked to the ship, including the deaths of two Japanese passengers in their 80s. 'Ongoing risk': The report comes after the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said Japan’s quarantine measures might not be sufficient to prevent transmission among individuals on the ship. "The CDC believes the rate of new infections on board, especially among those without symptoms, represents an ongoing risk," the organization said in a statement released Tuesday. The CDC said that all US passengers and crew of the ship have been placed under travel restrictions, preventing them from returning to the US for at least 14 days after they have left the Diamond Princess.
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Post by Admin on Feb 23, 2020 2:36:27 GMT
US President Donald Trump was "furious" after officials flew Americans with the coronavirus back to the US from a quarantined cruise ship in Japan without telling him, The Washington Post reported. The US flew 14 patients who had tested positive for the coronavirus back to the US from the Diamond Princess cruise ship on Monday, among other US citizens who had been on the flight and chose to take the US State Department's offer of a flight back. The State Department had originally said that it would only fly back patients who did not test positive, and would leave those who tested positive in Japan for treatment. But the position seemed to be reversed as the cases were only discovered after the passengers were already off the ship and on their way to the plane. Those who tested positive were isolated in a bio-containment box in the plane and are being treated in the US, while other passengers are being quarantined for 14 days.
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