
The number of new coronavirus cases on board the Diamond Princess cruise ship has been reduced from 66 to 65, Captain Stefano Ravera announced in a public address on the vessel.
“We have now been advised that the number of cases is reduced from 66 to 65, of which five were crew members,” he said Monday in a recording heard by CNN.
This brings the total number of cases on the Diamond Princess to 135. The newly announced cases have nearly doubled the total number, from 70 confirmed cases yesterday.
Those cruise passengers have been under strict quarantine for over a week now, confined to their cabins as medical personnel conduct tests on the 3,700 people on board.
Ravera said that they are currently in the process of disembarking the newly discovered patients.
Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said at a press conference Monday that it is difficult to test to everyone on the cruise ship for coronavirus.
Suga also said there is "a limit capacity to process virus test samples,” adding that authorities were testing samples belonging to people who had a fever, who had close contacted with infected people, and people over the age of 80 who feel ill.