They managed to get through the cracks. Twenty-three passengers of the Diamond Princess have managed to leave the quarantined cruise ship without passing all the medical examinations required to detect the new coronavirus, Health Minister Katsunobu Kato announced on Saturday. "We deeply regret the operational error on our part which caused this situation," he said, saying that the passengers concerned would be tested again for the coronavirus.
Japanese health officials this week authorized about 970 people to disembark from the ship after apparently negative tests for the coronavirus. Among these people released into the wild, two Australians and an Israeli were declared to be carriers of the virus upon their return to their country.
A hundred passengers who were in close contact with infected persons present on the Diamond Princess began Saturday to disembark from the liner, quarantined in the Japanese port of Yokohama, according to local media. Passengers and crew members of the cruise ship were also repatriated to their countries: 32 in the United Kingdom, six in Romania and two in Greece.
Coronavirus: Doctor denounces "chaos" aboard the Diamond Princess
More than 630 cases of coronavirus detected
All Japanese passengers have now left the ship, but foreigners are still waiting on board for planes chartered by their countries of origin to repatriate them. The Diamond Princess remains the most important source of contagion outside of China. Out of 3,711 people initially on board, more than 630 contracted the coronavirus.
Over a thousand Diamond Princess crew members should then be quarantined for 14 days. Many of them were not placed in solitary confinement as they were responsible for the ship's operation and service on board. They notably served meals to passengers confined to their cabins, which prompted criticism of the risks of spreading the virus on board.
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Coronavirus: the call for help of the Indian crew of the Diamond Princess
Katsunobu Kato has tried to justify the quarantine procedure on board chosen by Japan, saying on Saturday on Japanese television that there was no medical structure capable of accommodating more than 3,000 people at a time.
