The – ANNABELLE LIANG / AFP
After the “Diamond Princess”, Japan faced with the Covid-19 epidemic on the “Costa Atlantica”. Nearly a quarter of the 623 crew members of the cruise ship docked in west Japan have tested positive for the new coronavirus, a Japanese official said on Saturday. Local authorities had been alerted about a week ago by the
cruise line, Costa, as a result of suspected contamination among crew members who have since undergone tests.
The “Costa Atlantica”, an Italian-flagged liner with no passengers on board, arrived in January in the southern port of Nagasaki for repairs.
Japanese authorities heavily criticized for “Diamond Princess” case management
The last 57 tests were carried out this Saturday and the total number of cases now stands at 148, a Japanese official told the press, adding for the moment ignoring their nationalities and their ages. We just know that with the exception of an interpreter, none are Japanese. Some of the crew members have been isolated in cabins, but many others are required to carry out maintenance operations on board the vessel, Costa told Japanese authorities. Only one of them has so far been hospitalized.
Japanese authorities have previously faced cases of Covid-19 aboard a cruise ship, the “Diamond Princess”, at the beginning of the year and their management of this crisis had then attracted much criticism. All of the more than 3,700 passengers and crew members had been left in confinement for several weeks on this liner moored in the port of Yokohama, with ultimately 700 cases of contamination, 13 of which were fatal.
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