Cruise ship quarantined after passenger tests positive for coronavirus

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The upper decks of the Diamond Princess cruise ship with over 3,000 people look empty as the ship sits anchored in quarantine off the port of Yokohama on February 4, 2020, a day after it arrived with passengers feeling ill. (Photo by Behrouz MEHRI /

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NEW YORK - Japan said Wednesday 10 people on a cruise ship have tested positive for a new virus and were being taken to hospitals.

Health Minister Nobukatsu Kato said all the 3,700 people and passengers on the ship will be quarantined on board for up to 14 days under Japanese law. The 10 are among 273 people tested after one man who got off the ship in Hong Kong.

Some tests are still pending. Those tested either had a cough or fever, which are symptoms of the new coronavirus, or had close contact with the man who stopped in Hong Kong. But the transmission isn't clear, and the others may have gotten the virus when they got off the ship at other port calls in Vietnam, Taiwan, Kagoshima, and Okinawa. The ship returned to Yokohama, near Tokyo, Monday.

The new coronavirus has infected thousands in mainland China and caused scattered cases in Hong Kong and other places, mostly associated with travel to the central Chinese region where the outbreak has been most severe.