7 Feb 2020

Coronavirus: Quarantined cruise ship passenger demands info

From Checkpoint, 5:37 pm on 7 February 2020

More than 3,700 passengers remain in quarantine on the Diamond Princess cruise ship now docked at Yokohama.

More than 60 passengers have now been diagnosed with the coronovirus including one New Zealander.

Thirteen New Zealanders are onboard the ship which left Yokohama on January 20.

The ship had travelled through Japan, to Hong Kong, Vietnam and Taiwan before it was asked to return a day early to Yokohama when passengers began falling ill.

All passengers have been confined to their cabins since Monday and only in the past 24 hours have passengers in inside cabins been allowed out on the deck, a metre apart, for an hour and a half of fresh air.

British man Dave Abel is celebrating his 50th wedding anniversary onboard. He says he and other passengers are frustrated with a lack of information from both the ship's Captain and their own consulates, and are relying on social media for updates.

He says some passengers have also run out of medicine.