The quarantine of a cruise ship in Japan has failed as the number infected with the coronavirus rises.
According to Japan’s health minister, an additional 88 cases of the coronavirus were detected on Carnival’s Diamond Princess cruise ship on Tuesday, bringing the total number of cases to 542 among the approximately 3,600 passengers. The ship has been docked in Yokohama, Japan, since Feb. 3.
Nathalie MacDermott, an outbreak expert at King’s College London, told the New York Post that the ship’s lengthy quarantine, meant to prevent the spread of the virus, has been a failure.
“There’s no reason this should not have worked it if had been done properly,” MacDermott said. “Obviously, the quarantine hasn’t worked, and this ship has now become a source of infection.”
Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, said that “something went awry” during the quarantine.
“I’d like to sugarcoat it and try to be diplomatic about it, but it failed,” he said. “People were getting infected on that ship. Something went awry in the process of the quarantining on that ship. I don’t know what it was, but a lot of people got infected on that ship.”
The United States announced over the weekend that it would be sending charter planes to evacuate passengers aboard the Diamond Princess. Two flights carrying about 300 Americans left Japan on Sunday, and according to officials, 14 of those on board the flights were infected with the illness.
Those who tested positive were moved to a containment area on the planes and were monitored during the journey back to the U.S.
“After consultation with HHS officials, including experts from the HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, the State Department made the decision to allow the 14 individuals, who were in isolation, separated from other passengers, and continued to be asymptomatic, to remain on the aircraft to complete the evacuation process,” the Health and Human Services Department said.
More than 73,000 cases of the coronavirus have been confirmed worldwide, with a death toll hovering around 1,900. Most of those infected and who have died are in mainland China, particularly in Hubei province in the city of Wuhan, where the virus originated late last year. The director of Wuhan’s Wuchang Hospital is among the health workers who have died after being exposed to the contagion.
The outbreak has also affected the economy and manufacturing in China. Apple acknowledged on Monday that there is a temporary shortage of iPhones as a result of manufacturing facilities closed because of the virus.
