Coronavirus: 2 Indian crew test positive on a Japanese cruise ship

at 1:51 pm
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New Delhi (NVI):  Two Indian crew members have tested positive for the novel Coronavirus on the cruise ship quarantined off Yokohama, Japan, Minister of External Affairs, S Jaishankar, reported in a tweet today.

More than 3,700 passengers and crew are stuck on the Diamond Princess ship that is essentially a floating quarantine zone. The ship was placed under quarantine on February 4, 2020, and it isn’t scheduled to be lifted until February 19.

“Many Indian crews & some Indian passengers are onboard the cruise ship Diamond Princess quarantined off Japan due to Coronavirus. We are closely following the developments,” Jaishankar tweeted.

Meanwhile, the death toll in China’s Hubei province from the outbreak leapt by a record 242 on Thursday to 1,310, with a sharp rise in confirmed cases after the adoption of a new methodology for diagnosis, health officials said.

The rise in the toll more than doubled the prior provincial daily record of 103 set on Monday, while the number of new cases soared by 14,840, taking the total number of infected people to 48,206 cases.