The first passengers of the Diamond Princess cruise ship left the ship on Wednesday morning (Dutch time) now that quarantine has ended. Those on board were detained for two weeks on the ship docked in the port of the Japanese city of Yokohama.
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About 500 people on board have to go ashore on Wednesday and on Friday all travelers must be back on the mainland.
More than 12 percent of the passengers on the ship, 454 people, are infected with the coronavirus 2019-nCoV. There are also five Dutchmen on board who, as far as we know, have not contracted the virus.
During the quarantine period nobody was allowed to leave his or her cabin on board the ship. Occasionally the tourists were allowed a breath of fresh air on one of the outside decks, but then they had to keep their distance from each other and wear a mouth cap.
Number of countries have already started evacuation of citizens
A number of countries, including the United States and Canada, have already evacuated nationals aboard the ship. They only flew back uncontaminated persons.
The American citizens arrived on Monday and will have to quarantine for another two weeks in the US.
The Dutch aboard the Diamond Princess can go “on their own”, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported to NU.nl on Saturday.
Festivities around Japanese Emperor’s birthday shut down
In Japan, the festivities surrounding the birthday of Emperor Naruhito have been stopped for fear of the further spread of the corona virus. The last time the party was shut down was in 1996, during a hostage-taking at the Japanese embassy in Peru.
Last week in Japan, the first fatal victim was the virus. Around 65 people were infected in Japan outside the ship.
A further spread of the virus could plunge Japan into a recession, experts warn. This is due to declining income from tourism. In addition, the Japanese economy has also been severely affected by a tax increase and the aftermath of typhoon Hagibis.
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