Coronavirus. 40 Americans Infected On The Diamond Princess, The Ocean Liner Off Japan

At least forty Americans were infected by the new coronavirus on board the liner Diamond Princess, which is in quarantine off Japan, announced this Sunday, February 16 the American authorities.

“They are going to be treated in hospitals in Japan,” said Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Infectious Diseases, while the United States began to evacuate their nationals stranded on the ship since 5 February.

The state of health of the patients is variable, he said. You may be affected and have minimal symptoms but you remain contagious, said Fauci.

Or you can have a serious lung infection that requires hospitalization and perhaps even a heavier intervention, he said, without giving details on the date of screening or treatment of patients in particular.

The Diamond Princess was placed in quarantine in early February with its 3,711 passengers and crew members after a positive test on a cruise ship landed in Hong Kong.

350 Americans on board

As of Sunday, 355 people were declared infected and hospitalized. It was not immediately clear whether this count included the Americans.

During the night of Sunday to Monday, several dozen buses came to pick up the 350 or so Americans who were still on board.

They must then leave by plane bound for the United States where they will have to observe quarantine of 14 days. If people start to develop symptoms on the plane, they will be sidelined, said Fauci.

According to the latest report released Sunday by Beijing, the epidemic Covid-19 caused the death of 1665 people, mostly in Hubei Province in central China, where the virus emerged in December.

Only four deaths have been recorded elsewhere in the world: one in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory of Hong Kong and the other three respectively in Japan, the Philippines, and France.