TOKYO, February 17. /TASS/. The Russian Embassy in Tokyo did not receive an evacuation request from the Russian national stranded on the Diamond Princess Cruise ship, diagnosed earlier with the COVID-19 coronavirus.
"There were no evacuation requests, either from the infected Russian national, or from the rest of Russian nationals aboard the ship. The infected woman is expected to be hospitalized in Japan," the embassy said, adding that there is no information yet on where the woman would be hospitalized.
This is the first confirmed coronavirus case among Russian nationals. Earlier on Monday, the Japanese medics registered 99 new coronavirus cases at the ship, while the total number of the infected aboard increased to 454.
The ship left Yokohama on January 20 and returned on February 3. There was one Chinese national, infected with the COVID-19. On January 25, the man stepped ashore in Hong Kong. In accordance with the Japanese authorities’ decree, the cruise ship was put into quarantine, which would last until February 19.
On Monday, 380 US citizens left the Diamond Princess. They were delivered to the US Air Force base in California. Australia, Israel, Italy, Canada and South Korea seek to evacuate their citizens as well.
On December 31, Chinese authorities informed the World Health Organization (WHO) about an outbreak of an unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan — a large trade and industrial center in central China populated by 11 million people. On January 7, Chinese experts identified the infecting agent — coronavirus 2019-nCoV, currently known as COVID-19. The virus spread to 24 more countries apart from China. The WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak in China a global health emergency.
Currently, the total number of people infected with coronavirus exceeded 70,500 in China with over 1,800 people reported to have died from the disease. Meanwhile, over 10,800 people have reportedly recovered.