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Passengers begin leaving after ship's virus quarantine ends

45 Comments
By MARI YAMAGUCHI and FOSTER KLUG

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45 Comments
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This is like holding pigs in a muddy pen, letting them lose in your house and expecting them not to get mud everywhere. Watch the virus infection rate soar in Japan.

8 ( +13 / -5 )

The quarantine was largely for passengers because crew members kept sharing double rooms and continued to serve guests by delivering food, letters, towels and amenities, and entering passenger cabins for cleaning. Crew members also ate in groups in a crew mess hall.

Who on earth decided that this was ok? The company certainly takes some responsibility for deciding to continue the cruise in a 'business as usual' manner while in quarantine, but surely the authorities here should have followed stricter rules. Although this sentence put at the end of the article, it is clearly one of the primary reasons for the failure of this quarantine. Classic Japanese indecision at work!

3 ( +6 / -3 )

We got 200 Chinese in Atlanta under self quarantine, no infection

-4 ( +1 / -5 )

So even if virus level is low, it could be there.

Anyway, it is already soreading in Japan. Use young taxi drivers/operators to lead passengers home. Below 45 of age, risk is very limited statistically (0,2%).

0 ( +2 / -2 )

How about reporting how many people have overcome the virus after infection? All we read about is "number of infections" but the vast majority of people have overcome the virus.

10 ( +12 / -2 )

people tested negative & got off the ship should be quarantined on land for another 2 weeks just to be safe. Unfortunately Japan wouldn't do that. Expect massive of infected cases in Japan in the near future.

15 ( +17 / -2 )

I must say I'm not worried by coronavirus itself, but how the Japanese officials are handling this situation. If you see the John Hopkins map places like Europe didn't really had a substantial increase of cases of coronavirus in the past two weeks, even if flights from China are coming everyday (just British Airways and Lufthansa halted their services and Italy closed the flights to and from China). The real problem in Japan is how slowly they reacted to this ongoing situation, I mean, Italy not the country you would think when thinking about "best emergency response" had the two infected tested in 24 hours, the poor fella here in Hokkaido had pneumonia for 11 days before they thought to check him if he had coronavirus or not. I can understand that he didn't go abroad, but in this situation when you have an influx of chinese people coming and going without any restrictions, why wouldn't you think to check him a bit earlier?

6 ( +8 / -2 )

Now you see why the ship had so much problems, at minimum, you need to get these reporter fenced out to some distance,

also the passengers release from ship should wear more protective clothing,

where is the order? security people keeping the reporters and outsider away from passengers.

look at the ... reporter right next to the passengers in the photo.

Why so lax here? mask will not stop the spread of virus , this is really disappointing, this type of disorganization from J government,

4 ( +5 / -1 )

That's just plain crazy, isn't it?

Riding on a crowded anything in Japan has just gotten a helluvalot more dangerous.

As with the U.S. passengers recently evacuated to the U.S., the Japanese government should have set up installations which would have been safer to monitor the potential carriers to ensure that they're not infected before releasing in the general population. This whole thing was totally screwed up from start to finish by the bureaucrats.

7 ( +8 / -1 )

How about reporting how many people have overcome the virus after infection? All we read about is "number of infections" but the vast majority of people have overcome the virus.

Because negative news, tragedy and panic pays.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

Usually I’m not to critical of the Japanese government but this is plan and simple idiotic.

get them off the ship, sure, but not I to the general population. Isolate them for 2 weeks to ensure that they didn’t get infected yesterday, but not showing symptoms yet.

12 ( +13 / -1 )

More information on the state of those infected in Japan, please. How many are in serious condition and need ICU ?

0 ( +1 / -1 )

If you have not gotten blood work, how can, they say they are negative, every American on that ship will undergo a exam and American, that did not leave for America, is stuck in Japan, if are infected

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

I try not to compare Japan and Korea for obvious reasons. You need to google 8 people left for South Korea vs these Japanese residents coming out of the ship. Both group were negative , I will leave at that

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Somehow only Japan thinks that ship quarantine is successful.

Good luck everyone, be prepared for widespread COVID in Japan.

6 ( +10 / -4 )

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga defended Japan's handling of the quarantine: “In the beginning, the United States expressed gratitude for the Japanese side. And there are many Americans who chose to stay on the ship."

Idiot.

Somehow only Japan thinks that ship quarantine is successful.

Exactly. I've been on various news sites from around the world. EVERYONE is very critical about the handling of this whole debacle. And they are right to be so.

0 ( +5 / -5 )

@gogogoToday

How about reporting how many people have overcome the virus after infection? All we read about is "number of infections" but the vast majority of people have overcome the virus.

Sadly in today's world of headlines being more important than facts, bad news sells more papers and generate more clicks than 'good' news. I mean if you reported that a majority of the deaths are within a narrow demographic people won't panic... and the media love a good scare story.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Up to half the of the passengers are Japanese, and of those released after negative tests, they will go back to their homes. As they've been away from their homes for so long already, the very first place they'll be going after that is to the supermarket to renew their grocery supplies. Maybe a kombini or two for other things first, some may need to go back to work straight away, potentially crowded subway train rides involved for some of the above... Yup, this might become interesting.

6 ( +6 / -0 )

Remember these hundreds of infections are believed to have come from one passenger...just one.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

How about reporting how many people have overcome the virus after infection? All we read about is "number of infections" but the vast majority of people have overcome the virus.

Because we all know that the mortality rate is something like 2%, and is concentrated among the elderly. There is no need to report on it further.

So if a million people were to catch it in Japan, about 20,000 would be likely to die, as many as died in the tsunami of 2011. These are hypothetically people who would still be alive if not for the illness.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Every single person should be tested and cleared of the virus before letting them go into the general population. No test? You remained quarantined.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Japan did the right thing by imposing quarantine on the ship. Japan did the right thing by letting passengers go. Japan can do no wrong!

-7 ( +2 / -9 )

Japan has had quite a few cases of infection, some Chinese tourists, some Japanese who were in China, and some who had nothing to do with China at all. But as far as I am aware no one got it from any of the passengers of the Diamond Princess. Which effectively means that the quarantine was effective. To this point.

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

Not sure what to make of this. I hope this does not cause the virus to spread in Japan. This does not seem wise.

5 ( +5 / -0 )

What can we do about this?

https://youtu.be/vtHYZkLuKcI

0 ( +0 / -0 )

To be accurate, 2 taxi drivers have been infected in Okinawa, both believed to have had contact with passengers from the Diamond Princess when the ship called in Okinawa. But this was before the quarantine.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

My thoughts on this is that we the readers get accurate information regarding increase or decrease of this virus as a result in ending the quarantine and allowing all these people into Japan. Election time coming time for a real change across the board.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Have to give credit where it is due: the CNN reporter who was covering this, did a good job. He basically said what I already knew, but I was surprised to see somebody from the MSM being so transparent about Japan.

The J gov has been trying to make this all go away before the Olympics. Having witnessed this behavior before, its a very J gov thing to do. Releasing these people out to the public, seems absurd but this is Japan. Thanks to the reporter for telling the world how it is here.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

@Educator60 In that case, they got the all clear, no problem.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

How about that British Couple, who recently tested Positive and were shipped off to some place other than a Hospital - one without WiFi... which has curtailed their plentiful updates from the inside.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Letting people off this vessel seems to me to be extremely highly negligent, this could go very horribly wrong.

The virus roulette has just begun......pure insanity.

5 ( +5 / -0 )

Today (Wednesday) another 79 passengers tested positive for coronavirus on the cruise ship, bringing the total to 621 infected on the boat, or about 1 in 6 people, or about 17%.

Elsewhere across Japan, another 6 Japanese were confirmed with it as well

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Sorry, not 6 new cases in Japan today. Its now 9.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Sorry again, its now 10.

(why do they always announce new cases so late in the evening...?)

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Feb 19. Total confirmed cases in Japan now 74, not counting those who contracted the virus on Diamond Princess.

I'm very worried this will be well up into the hundreds by the end of the month.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Is there no common sense at all in corridors of power in Japan?

5 ( +6 / -1 )

letting these passengers go into the general public will be the biggest mistake of this government.

they should of take these passengers to isolated locations for 2 weeks period for more testing and keep them out of general public

6 ( +6 / -0 )

Japanese citizens are free to return to their homes, no self-quarantine required.

What can go wrong here...

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Watch this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjGEGMLs4TE

Deserves it's own thread to be honest.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

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