Japan acknowledged on Saturday that 23 passengers on the Diamond Princess had been able to leave the quarantined cruise ship without passing all the medical tests required to detect the new coronavirus. " We deeply regret our operational error which caused this situation, " said Japanese Minister of Health Katsunobu Kato at a press conference, saying that the passengers concerned would be tested again for the coronavirus.
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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 Japanese woman who left the ship on Wednesday has also been declared a carrier of the coronavirus after returning home to Tochigi prefecture, north of Tokyo, Japanese news agency Kyodo said on Saturday, citing local authorities.
Second source of contagion
A hundred passengers who were in close contact with infected people 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. All Japanese passengers have now left the ship, but foreign passengers are still waiting on board for planes chartered by their countries of origin to repatriate them.
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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, including serving meals to passengers confined to their cabins, which prompted criticism of the risks of thus spread the virus on board.
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.
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Mr. Kato has tried to justify the quarantine procedure on board chosen by Japan, saying Saturday on Japanese television that there was no medical structure capable of accommodating more than 3000 people at a time. He confirmed that a Japanese hospital used an influenza drug, Avigan or Favipiravir, on Saturday to treat a patient infected with the coronavirus, and that the Japanese government is considering promoting such treatment if it turns out to be effective.