Passengers on Diamond Princess face at least another nine days in quarantine

This article is more than 7 months old

This article is more than 7 months old

Another 66 passengers onboard a luxury cruise liner quarantined in Japan have tested positive for coronavirus, bringing the number of infected people on the ship to 136.

Japanese health officials said the new diagnoses among 3,700 passengers and crew onboard the Diamond Princess included 45 people from Japan, 11 from the US, four from Australia, three from the Philippines and one each from Canada and Ukraine.

The vessel was quarantined when it arrived in Yokohama, south of Tokyo, early last week after it emerged that a passenger who had disembarked in Hong Kong late last month had tested positive for the respiratory illness, which has infected more than 40,000 people and killed at least 910.

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On Monday, a week into their 14-day quarantine, some of the passengers were trying to fight off boredom by reading, watching live coverage of the Oscars, playing games or snoozing. Others were beginning to grow despondent, with at least another nine days to go before they will be allowed to disembark.

“Lots of the passengers now are getting a bit of cabin fever,” David Abel, a British passenger, said in a Facebook video. “Depression is starting to set in.”

Another passenger said he hoped assurances about the effectiveness of quarantine and ventilation onboard would prove true.

Quarantine has made life on board the ship difficult, particularly for those in windowless cabins and for the large number of passengers who require medication for chronic conditions.

Small groups of passengers are allowed on to the Diamond Princess’s deck for 90 minutes every other day, with priority given to those staying in windowless cabins. They must wear masks and stay well away from other people.

Japan’s health ministry said medications had been delivered at the weekend to about half of the 600 people onboard who said they needed them.

The ministry has said the quarantine will stretch to 19 February, although the World Health Organization said late on Sunday that the period could be extended “as appropriate” for close contacts of newly confirmed cases.

Japanese health authorities initially tested 273 at-risk passengers, evacuating those who tested positive to local hospitals. But in recent days testing has expanded to those who had close contact with other infected passengers or crew, leading to the discovery of dozens of new cases since the weekend.

The government plans to test dozens of older passengers, according to Kyodo news agency. “We are considering testing, if possible, all those over 80 years old who are in ill health,” the chief cabinet secretary, Yoshihide Suga, told reporters on Monday.

Everyone onboard has been given a thermometer and asked to regularly monitor their temperatures.

Abel, who is with his wife, Sally, said he knew of passengers who were struggling with the meals being served during the quarantine period – a far cry from the wide variety of food and drink they had enjoyed until last week.

A lot of the food being served was “not to the passengers’ taste” and was going to waste, he said.

“It’s not right that I should grumble, but I am in that group. I’m not enjoying the food, it’s just not my choice of food. Even though I’m losing weight, it’s very hard to eat the type of food they’re providing for me,” Abel said, adding that lunch on Monday had been “two huge pieces” of salmon with vegetables. “Now I know that’s really good for me, but the salmon was so damn dry I couldn’t eat it.”

Other passengers praised the food, noting that the quantity had increased since the ship first went into lockdown a week ago.

Matthew Smith sympathised with the newly diagnosed people but said in a Twitter post Monday that “life goes on”, adding that he had no complaints about the food.

Yardley Wong, a passenger from Hong Kong, indicated that news of the additional infections had affected her mood. “I need to cry to get off the anxiety,” she tweeted. “Too much for today.”

Some of the younger passengers are reportedly concerned about possible repercussions at work due to the amount of time they are being forced to take off.