18 Feb 2020

1 person refused to leave ship in fear of catching coronavirus

From First Up, 5:47 am on 18 February 2020

An American onboard the quarantined Diamond Princess cruise chose not to leave the ship with his fellow citizens for fear of being exposed to the coronavirus. More than 300 Americans boarded charter flights from Tokyo, Japan to the United States yesterday. Despite them being screened for symptoms of covid-19, they will enter into a second 14 day quarantine once they arrive back in the US. There have been 365 cases of the virus onboard the ship to date - the highest concentration of cases outside mainland China. But with the quarantine of the ship due to end tomorow, Matthew Smith decided against leaving. He began by telling First Up's Lydia Batham how the evacuation played out.