An Australian traveller who remains stranded onboard a cruise liner off Japan says tensions are high amid an ongoing outbreak of coronavirus.
Another 41 people on the cruise liner off Japan have tested positive for the illness, bringing the total confirmed cases to 61, with thousands of passengers locked down as testing continues.
The vessel, Diamond Princess, and the roughly 3,700 people aboard have been under two-week quarantine since arriving back at the port of Yokohama, just south of Tokyo after a man who disembarked in Hong Kong was diagnosed with the virus.
An ambulance is seen parked at the Yokohama port in Kanagawa Prefecture. Source: Yomiuri Shimbun
Victorian woman Vera Koslova-Fu is confined to a cabin with her husband Sean, while her sons, 21-year old Jacob and 18-year-old Aaron, are down the hall.
"I am quite a positive person...I suppose having a little cry, now it's kind of sunken in and it is all about 'well, what can we do?'" she told SBS News.
"What are they doing with the over 150 people who are still sick onboard?"
Ms Koslova-Fu fears travellers are also being left out when it comes to details surrounding the quarantine measures for those who have tested positive for coronavirus.
"Can they not do something by quarantining them somewhere else and letting us know where so that we are kept safe? That's the unknown," she said.
"Where are those people confined? Do we need to be careful as we go out? We don't know."
The Koslova-Fu family on holiday. Source: Supplied
The total 61 confirmed cases came from a sample of 273 people who had been tested because they were either showing symptoms or had been in close contact with those who did, according to the health ministry.
Health Minister Katsunobu Kato told a news conference 21 of the newly found 41 cases were Japanese.
Further tests would be conducted if additional passengers onboard the ship developed symptoms, he said.
Live TV footage showed blue and white temporary hoardings put up on the vessel as passengers diagnosed with the virus were moved out to medical facilities.
Princess Diamond passengers who tested positive in a new coronavirus test are carried to an ambulance at the Yokohama port in Kanagawa Prefecture. Source: Yomiuri Shimbun
The new patients would be transported to hospitals in Tokyo and neighbouring towns, the health ministry said.
The rise in the number of infections has worsened the mood for thousands of passengers stuck on the cruise, who were only allowed out for brief periods to breathe fresh air on open decks.
Several had previously said they were longing to get out and see the sky.
Ashley Rhodes-Courter, an American whose parents are on the boat, said she hoped US officials would be able to help her parents leave the boat.
"They are all breathing circulated contaminated air so they could be getting everyone infected," Ms Rhodes-Courter told Reuters.
The virus can be transmitted via droplets from an infected person exhaling, coughing or sneezing, and can also spread via contaminated surfaces such as door handles.
A passenger waves the Australian flag from her balcony onboard the Princess Diamond. Source: Yomiuri Shimbun
Experts have said it is more easily transmitted than the SARS virus.
Ms Koslova-Fu said measures to contain airflow onboard the vessel had also prompted fears among travellers.
"How do they recycle the air? How effective is the recycling? Those things are very, very upsetting," she told SBS News.
"Is there any possibility that the Australian government can work something out? It sounds (that) if there are more and more cases we are most likely in danger."
The new ship cases take the total number of coronavirus infections in Japan to more than 80.
Health Minister Kato said Japan is not including the cruise ship cases in its national count, which stands at 21 patients.
With the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics less than half a year away, Games organisers have set up a task force to deal with the situation.
With wires...
