Coronavirus: Irish onboard quarantined cruise ship expect to be evacuated this week
Irish passengers on board the quarantined cruise ship docked in Yokohama, Japan, because of coronavirus are expected to be evacuated from the vessel this week.
The Department of Foreign Affairs says it is looking at the needs of Irish citizens on board the Diamond Princess.
Among the 3,700 passengers and crew is an Irish couple who were supposed to leave the vessel earlier this month.
The ship now has the biggest cluster of coronavirus outside China with 454 cases confirmed.
A further 99 tested positive on Monday and all of the ill passengers have been brought ashore to hospitals.
Passengers already evacuated from the ship face further uncertainty too, with the US and Australian citizens set for a further two weeks of quarantine after arriving home.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Foreign Affair was asked for an update on the Irish passengers on the ship.
“We are aware of the developing situation and are liaising closely with other like-minded countries regarding the consular needs of our citizens,” she said.
Consular assistance is being provided to Irish passengers but the spokesperson said the department would not be commenting on individual cases and the people or families involved.
The spokesperson also stressed that the department would not be commenting further on the situation.
Passengers remaining on the ship have access to wi-fi and can make and receive calls from their rooms. They all have thermometers to check their temperatures.
The Irish couple who have spoken to the media but want to remain anonymous spend most of the day letting members of their family know how they are.
The couple, who have no symptoms of the virus, expect to get a negative test result in the coming days so they can leave the ship and fly home as soon as possible.
The US was the first country to evacuate its passengers from the ship, flying them out of the country at the weekend on two chartered planes to military bases in Texas and California, where they will be held in quarantine for two weeks.
The state department said that after passengers were sent to the airport officials discovered that 14 had tested positive. They were isolated on the flight and allowed to fly home.
The outbreak of novel coronavirus, now called Covid-19, has evolved rapidly with 71,329 confirmed cases and 1,775 deaths from the disease worldwide.
Of the 1,775 deaths, all but four have been reported in China with one death reported in the Philippines, one in Hong Kong, one in Japan and one in France. Most cases (70,634) have occurred in China.
According to the Health Protection Surveillance Centre, about one in every 50 people (2%) with confirmed Covid-19 have died. During the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak in 2003, one in every ten (10%) infected people died.
There has been no laboratory-confirmed case of coronavirus in Ireland to date and the response is currently focussed on preventing or limiting the spread of the virus.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
