Eddie Jirayu in Current Affairs On February 21, 2020, 2:29 pm

3 Thais On ‘Diamond Princess’ Cruise Ship Tested Positive With Covid-19

Thai nationals infected on cruise ship

Image adapted from: CNN

Earlier this month, the Diamond Princess cruise ship made headlines worldwide with its high number of COVID-19 infections on board as it docked at Yokohama, Japan.

Among the international crowd were two Thai passengers and 23 Thai crew members.

Image adapted from: BBC

Mr. Cherdkiat Atthakor, the Foreign affairs spokesman, confirmed that 3 Thai nationals have been infected by the virus – 1 passenger and 2 crew members.

The Thai passengers who tested negative will return to Thailand shortly whereas the crew members will continue to work onboard.

634 cases of infections in total

Image adapted from: Thestandard

When the 14-day quarantine on the vessel ended on Wednesday, Japanese authorities allowed uninfected passengers to disembark. As for the infected group, they were being transported to hospitals in the country.

At least 634 people on board have been infected by the virus out of 3,700 people on the ship in total. This is considered the biggest cluster of infections outside mainland China.

2 Japanese passengers confirmed dead

Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare said that 2 elderly passengers on the ship who were infected with COVID-19 have died while they were hospitalised.

The pair were a woman and man in their 80s and were taken off the ship last week. According to The Japan Times, the man had a pre-existing condition of bronchial asthma, while the woman had no underlying conditions.

These are Japan’s second and third deaths from the virus. The first case was an elderly woman in her 80s who was living in Kanagawa Prefecture, in the south of Tokyo.

We’re sending our support to everybody involved and hope that things will change for the better soon.