Cruise Ship Passenger Tests Positive For Coronavirus, 3,700 Guests And Crew Under Investigation

The 116,000 gross ton cruise ship, Diamond Princess, remains docked in Yokohama, Japan as medical personnel examine the ship's 2,666 passengers and 1,045 crew after a single passenger from Hong Kong tested positive for the Novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) four days after leaving the ship. Princess Cruises announced a one day delay in the ship's sailing.

Diamond Princess, which is owned by Princess Cruises, was deployed to Southeast Asia in 2018, plying Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Vietnam, Taiwan and Malaysia. She mostly traverses Japanese waters, however.

“The review of the arriving guests and crew, by Japanese health authorities, is standard practice after a guest tested positive for coronavirus and we are working closely with the local authorities to provide detailed records to facilitate their review,” said Princess Cruises in a statement.

The company said the passenger embarked Diamond Princess in Yokohama on Jan. 20 and disembarked in Hong Kong on Jan. 25. Diamond Princess then continued its round-trip journey that ultimately took other passengers back to Yokohama. The port city of Yokohama is located 37 km by road southwest of Tokyo.

On January 29, the passenger from Hong Kong tested positive for coronavirus at a local hospital, according to Princess Cruises.

The toll from the raging Novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) outbreak tearing through China and infecting 23 other countries and territories stood at 426 deaths as of Tuesday morning (China time) with 20,622 confirmed cases. All the deaths, except two, occurred in China. One death outside China was that of a man from Wuhan who died from the disease in a Philippine hospital, the other death was recorded in Hong Kong.

The Yokohama episode will add to the downward pressure battering Princess Cruises 's stock over the past three weeks. The stock closed Tuesday on Wall Street at $42.75, down 1.66 percent after falling as much as 3.3 percent to $42.10 on Monday, the stock's lowest intraday level since October. This was the stock's eighth drop in 10 trading days. Shares have fallen 17 percent since its recent high on Jan. 17, when coronavirus cases were still on a modest upswing.