Coronavirus: 14 Americans repatriated from quarantined cruise ship test positive
A British passenger says he feels the UK government is "forgetting" its citizens on board the ship with 369 coronavirus cases.
Monday 17 February 2020 17:59, UK
Fourteen US citizens who were evacuated from a quarantined cruise ship have been flown home - despite being found to have COVID-19 on the way to the airport.
Two charter flights carrying some of the 380 Americans on board the Diamond Princess ship moored at Yokohama Port near Tokyo had left Japan for America on Sunday, the US State Department said.
Passengers were tested for the virus 2-3 days before being allowed off the ship, but once they had begun heading to the airport, officials received notice that 14 of them tested positive - despite being found "fit to fly".
Passengers who were known to have tested positive for the virus before the leaving the ship were told they would not be able to board the flight back to the US, but exceptions were made for those already heading to the airport.
Once on board the flight from Tokyo's Haneda Airport, those who had tested positive were moved to the back of the plane in a "specialised containment area" to be isolated - even though they did not display any symptoms.
The flights appear to have landed at US airforce bases, and the repatriated passengers will now have to spend another two weeks in quarantine at a military facility.
Of the 3,500 people on board the ship, 454 have tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.
Australia, Canada, Hong Kong and Italy are also planning similar repatriation flights.
Meanwhile, 74 Britons held on the ship have accused the UK government of "forgetting" about them.
In a video message, British passenger David Abel said: "Every country except the UK has become involved, and that is really wonderful for the people on board the ship.
"Every country except for the United Kingdom.
"It feels that we've been forgotten. That you don't really care about us, and that you're actually not wanting us to come home."
The latest coronavirus developments:
- Chinese authorities have said there were 2,048 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 105 new deaths on Sunday in mainland China.
- Taiwan has reported its first death from the virus, bringing the total number of deaths outside mainland China to five.
- Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has convened a meeting of experts to discuss how the virus can be contained in his country, after more than a dozen cases emerged in recent days without any obvious link to China.
- In the UK, 4,501 tests had been carried out by 2pm on Monday, nine of which were positive.
The UK government has revealed it is considering a repatriation flight in the wake of the US action to fly its citizens home.
A Number 10 spokesman said: "We sympathise with all those caught up in this extremely difficult situation.
"The Foreign Office is in contact with all British people on the Diamond Princess, including to establish interest in a possible repatriation flight.
"We are urgently considering all options to guarantee the health and safety of those on board."
The Department of Health has confirmed a hotel at Heathrow has been block booked for use by travellers arriving with Coronavirus symptoms who have nowhere else to self isolate or await test results.
It says any positive test cases will be transferred to a specialist NHS facility for treatment.
Virgin chief Richard Branson announced that he was in talks with the government to see if his company was able to help, following a direct appeal by last week, asking the billionaire to offer his services.
However, the embassy in Tokyo is clear that a flight is only being looked into at the moment, and that it is not a certainty.
Organisers of the Tokyo Marathon announced on Monday that this year's event was to be significantly scaled back, due to fears over COVID-19.
A statement on the event website said that officials "cannot continue to launch the event within the scale we originally anticipated".
Only elite able-bodied and wheelchair athletes will be allowed to compete in the 1 March event, with others being offered the chance to defer to next year.
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It all comes as the death toll from COVID-19 hit more than 1,775, according to the Johns Hopkins Centre for Systems Science and Engineering.
So far there have been more than 71,000 suspected and confirmed cases of COVID-19, with most of the cases concentrated in mainland China.