33 more crew on cruise ship docked in Japan test positive for virus

NAGASAKI, April 22 Kyodo - An additional 33 crew members on an Italian cruise ship docked for repairs in southwestern Japan have tested positive for the coronavirus, bringing the total to 34, the Nagasaki prefectural government said Wednesday. After a crew member aboard the Costa Atlantica, which is docked in the Koyagi district of Nagasaki city, was confirmed as infected with the virus on Tuesday, the city said it would test 53 people who had been in close contact with the crew member as well as four of the vessel's cooks. The results of 56 of those 57 people's tests have been made public so far, with 23 coming back negative. The remaining one person is currently awaiting results from a retest, after the initial test proved inconclusive. None of the 33 who tested positive is in serious condition. Those who had been in close contact with the crew member who tested positive have been quarantined, while other crew members have been staying in cabins with balconies. There are no passengers aboard the cruise ship, which has a crew of 623. The one Japanese among the crew is not infected and did not have close contact with the first infected crew member, according to the vessel's operator Costa Crociere. Specialists from the health ministry said Wednesday that a cluster of coronavirus infections is likely to have occurred aboard the ship, which arrived in Nagasaki on Jan. 29 and is scheduled to remain until the end of April. Nagasaki Gov. Hodo Nakamura plans to request the dispatch of the Self-Defense Forces to deal with the situation. In Tokyo, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said at a press conference Wednesday that Japan has sent officials and specialists from the health ministry to the ship in response to a request from the Italian government for assistance. "We will take appropriate measures to prevent the spread of the virus in cooperation with Nagasaki Prefecture and others," he said. The ship was originally due to undergo repairs in China but Mitsubishi Shipbuilding Co., a unit of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., eventually received the repair order due to the virus outbreak, which was first detected in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019. Although it was initially stated that no one had boarded or disembarked from the Costa Atlantica since the first virus infection in Nagasaki Prefecture was confirmed in the city of Iki on March 14, Mitsubishi Shipbuilding said Wednesday that some crew members had done so even after that date. Details remain unclear, but those who disembarked included some who went to hospitals, said the company, which is currently requesting more information from the ship's operator. ==Kyodo