Another 40 cases of the Wuhan coronavirus have been confirmed aboard a cruise ship quarantined off the coast of the Japanese port of Yokohama, bringing the total number of infections discovered on that unfortunate vessel up to 175.
The Diamond Princess easily represents the largest concentration of coronavirus cases outside of China. Singapore comes in second with 47 cases. Heck, the entire province of Yunnan has only confirmed 154 cases.
Of these new cases, 39 were either passengers or crew while the remaining one was a quarantine officer who had come aboard the ship to test passengers.
There were around 3,700 passengers and crew aboard the ship when it arrived off the coast of Japan last week and was halted by authorities after it was discovered that a passenger who took a cruise on the vessel late last month had tested positive for the coronavirus upon arriving back in Hong Kong.
While the cruise was scheduled to end on February 4, all those on board will have to remain quarantined until at least February 19… though it will likely be even longer than that with the WHO instructing that passengers should remain isolated for two weeks after their last close contact with someone infected by the virus.
Passengers have mostly been confined to their rooms, allowed to go up on deck only during assigned 90-minute shifts.
Food and other necessities are brought to their door. They are being provided with free internet and phone service along with expanded movie options and games to play to stave off the boredom of being on a cruise that doesn’t move.
The cruise ship’s operator, Princess Cruises, has announced that it refund all passengers their full fare and all other expenses. It also said it would give them future travel credit for a voyage of equal value to this one… though we imagine most might be a bit sick of cruises at this point.
