Former passengers of the Diamond Princess liner laid flowers Monday at Yokohama port in remembrance of the 13 people who died following the mass COVID-19 outbreak onboard five years ago.
The outbreak of infections on the ship in February 2020 led to thousands being quarantined after it docked at the port near Tokyo. Japan stopped accepting foreign cruise ships the following month for the next three years.
The government was criticized for forcing passengers to remain on board for a long time despite the limited medical facilities. Authorities also faced difficulties finding medical facilities for patients as the number of infections swelled.
Passengers infected with the disease started disembarking on Feb 14 after the ship's Feb 3 arrival, with most others starting to leave Feb 19 and the process only completed on March 1.
The ship's lack of strict quarantine measures such as confining passengers to their cabins immediately after the first case of the coronavirus was confirmed is also believed to have contributed to the spread of infections.
In the memorial event, a board inscribed with the words "Never let such a tragedy happen again" was displayed, with the dates of the deceased's hospitalizations and deaths read out.
Ryohei Nakata, who was among those infected onboard together with his wife, has attended the memorial every year. "Such a terrible disaster must never happen again. A proper investigation is necessary," the 78-year-old said.
A nationwide association of former passengers continues to urge the government to conduct a thorough investigation of the incident, including interviewing passengers and crew.
Tadashi Chida, an 81-year-old former passenger from Sapporo and joint head of the association, expressed concerns that the incident was fading from public memory.
"Five years have passed, and I fear it will be forgotten. We need to reconsider how we should reflect on this mass outbreak," he said.
The Diamond Princess departed Yokohama on Jan 20, 2020, with a passenger who had disembarked in Hong Kong testing positive for COVID-19 on Feb 1. Of the 3,711 passengers and crew on board, 712 became infected and 13 died, with an additional fatality occurring after a passenger returned home to Australia.
© KYODO
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sakurasuki
It's also mark Japan's slow response during time of Covid crisis
travelbangaijin
Japan left them on that ship - imagine if a real bio-outbreak or bio-warfare happen in Japan, how Nippon will respond
Japantime
This ship started the pandemic in Japan. I remember this news. Japan had very few cases until this ship came back from overseas with the virus.
travelbangaijin
Not true, the pandemic started at Ginza 9 with the Chinese tourists that are dropped off and shop in Ginza. The first person infected was a cab driver who infected his mother and she passed away
sakurasuki
@Japantime
It was Nara, a bus driver being confirmed the first covid patient in Japan. The problem how many people in Nara or other area he's been contacted to? Nobody know.
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20200401/p2g/00m/0fe/034000c
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0145561320980186
.
About that ship, Japanese news just keep airing that ship over and over again, as if that ship is the main cause for covid existence in Japan. Remember there's no lockdown in Japan also give Go To Travel discount during covid, which proven helping spread out Covid in Japan.
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/07/22/business/economy-business/go-to-travel-campaign-domestic-tourism-coronavirus/
https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Asia-Insight/Japan-s-Go-To-Travel-plan-spurs-fears-of-man-made-COVID-disaster
https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/11/4/e049069
owzer
Those passengers should sue for unlawful imprisonment.
Alongfortheride
Japan handled covid a LOT better than other countries.
Alongfortheride
You do not know that for sure but regardless if r not you are correct covid was always going to find its way to Japan so not a lot of use pointing the finger of blame.
kohakuebisu
It's nice of the passengers to remember those that died. Good on them for caring.
There is no mention of whether the ship operator did anything, but that doesn't surprise me. It wouldn't surprise me if cruise ships today are as unprepared for mass medical events as this one clearly was.
Bruce Pennyworth
So 0.35% died and the world death toll was 0.09%, granted that the majority of people who died were probably old, a investigation is not warranted