British passengers on the Diamond Princess cruise liner, where hundreds have tested positive for coronavirus, have pleaded with the UK Government to to evacuate them after the US, Canada and Hong Kong announced they would move their citizens off the ship.

David Abel, who is among the 78 Britons stuck on the ship since February 3, said that he feels "completely overlooked, neglected and forgotten" and asked the Government: "Don’t you want your people home? I’ve never felt less loved by my own country than right now.”

In a Facebook post on Sunday he said: "Can I tell you, UK, how this makes me really feel? If feels like we have been forgotten, that you don’t really care about us and that you don’t really want us to come home.”

Japan confirmed yesterday that the number of people aboard infected with the coronavirus is now 355, up by 70 in the past 24 hours.

On Friday, the US embassy in Tokyo sent a message telling their citizens on board that a chartered plane would arrive this evening in Japan, and recommended they disembarked "out of an abundance of caution" and return home.

They are expected to undergo a further quarantine of 14 days upon arrival at a US military base in California. Hong Kong and Canada announced on Saturday that they would also repatriate its citizens.