IT News
Mumbai Feb 20
Even as 621 out of the 3,711 people on board luxury cruise liner “Diamond Princess” have tested positive, one more Indian aboard a quarantined cruise ship off Japan’s coast was found to be infected by the new strain of coronavirus, taking the total number of affected Indians on the ship to seven, said the Indian Embassy.
There are total of 138 Indians on the ship, including 132 crew and 6 passengers. One Indian crew who tested positive for COVID19 among 88 new cases on Diamond Princess shifted to hospital for treatment,” said a tweet by the Indian embassy on Wednesday..The tweet read as “Indian crew who tested positive for #COVID19 among 88 new cases yesterday on #DiamondPrincess taken to hospital for treatment. Indians receiving treatment responding well. From today, disembarkation of passengers only started, likely to continue till 21 Feb. @MEAIndia”.
The Indian Embassy said that it was in discussions with the Japanese government and the ship management company to affect de-boarding of all the Indians after the end of the quarantine period.
Passengers on the ship begun to leave with the first bath of 500 de-embarked on Wednesday after a two-week quarantine period failed to stop the spread of the virus. The cruise ship arrived at the Japanese coast earlier this month and was quarantined after it was found that a passenger who had got off the ship in Hong Kong in January was infected with the deadly virus that has led to an international alarm and over 2000 deaths in China alone.
In another development 645 passengers who were kept at Indo Tibetan Border Police ( ITBP)’s facility at Manesar (Haryana) after their return from Wuhan province, by Air India’s 747 Boeing aircraft on February 1 and 2 in two 747 Boeing Air India aircraft, were allowed to go home on Wednesday, after all of them tested negative. They included 36 passengers from Maharashtra.
In Maharashtra, 69 passengers out of 71 passengers admitted to different hospitals have been discharged and only two passengers remain under observation at Kasturba Hospital in Mumbai.
In all 41,208 passengers were subjected to thermal scanning at Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport till Wednesday. Major airlines have suspended flights to China and banned arrivals from the country in the effort to contain the spread.
In the meanwhile the Union Health Ministry has denied that a person named Sakthikumar (42) from Kothaimangalam Village in Tamil Nadu died of COVID-19 disease on Saturday. The ministry released a statement in which it clarified that the death occurred due to End Stage Liver Disease and not due to COVID-19.
According to the statement,the deceased was known case of chronic liver disease with jaundice manifestation due to alcoholism and was under treatment for the past three years. Also he was admitted and treated for his ailment during August 2019 at a private hospital at Tanjore.
Sakthikumar, who ran a small restaurant in China, had gone back to China, due to manpower shortage to run his eatery there despite his illness. However he returned to India on 4 February, due to jaundice and underwent treatment initially in his village and then in a private hospital at Madurai.
