The Japanese government on Thursday, February 20, said two people from the Diamond Princess cruise ship berthed in Yokohama, Japan, both in their 80s, had died from coronavirus and that another 2 government officials had tested positive for the deadly infection.
More than 620 cruise passengers aboard the liner, which is carrying around 3,700 people, have been infected.
The 2 Princess Cruises passengers were an 84-year-old woman and an 87-year-old man who suffered from heart ailments and bronchitis. Both tested positive for the coronavirus although the cause of death of the woman was listed as pneumonia, the health ministry revealed.
Japanese authorities added that a health ministry official and another one from the Cabinet Secretariat had been confirmed to be infected with the virus after both had spent time working on Diamond Princess. 3 officials had previously been infected.
On Wednesday, February 19, a total of 443 passengers disembarked after testing negative for COVID-19 and not showing symptoms during the 14-day quarantine period. The complete removal of the travellers was expected to take at least 3 days.
More passengers left the cruise ship on Thursday, leaving for stations and airports for home via buses.
For other Diamond Princess accidents and incidents see at the ship's CruiseMinus page.