Some Cruise Ship Crew Can Go Home From Nagasaki
Officials in Nagasaki Prefecture dealing with a coronavirus outbreak on a cruise ship docked there are working to send crew members who tested negative back to their home countries.
The Italian-registered Costa Atlantica is at the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries shipyard for repairs. Of the 623 crew members, 148 were confirmed to have the virus as of Saturday.
One crew member is in serious condition at a hospital in Nagasaki, but the others remain on board.
Nagasaki officials plan to make arrangements with the central government to send home people who tested negative but have not completed a 14-day quarantine period. Those who will be engaged in ship's operation will remain.
The prefecture will also make preparations to accept those who tested positive in local medical institutions if their symptoms worsen. But the officials plan to return people with mild or no symptoms to their home countries as soon as the quarantine period ends.
Two other cruise ships from the same operator, the Costa Neo Romantica and the Costa Serena, were also docked in Nagasaki. The vessels left the port on Sunday as there had been no reports of anyone showing symptoms.
