TOKYO: Japan has quarantined a cruise ship carrying 3,500 people and was testing passengers for the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) on Tuesday after a passenger who departed in Hong Kong tested positive for the virus. The move comes after an 80-year-old passenger who disembarked on Jan 25 in Hong Kong tested positive for the deadly virus. The cruise ship has already been quarantined once, on Saturday at a port in Naha in Japan’s southernmost prefecture of Okinawa. The health ministry said as of Monday that 20 people in Japan have tested positive for the new virus, of whom four showed no symptoms. Japan has flown more than 500 citizens out of Wuhan, the epicentre of the coronavirus.

Source: New Strait Times February 04, 2020 01:07 UTC