TOTAL NUMBER NOW 27 DFA: 16 more Pinoys on Japan cruise ship positive for COVID-19

The number of Filipinos aboard a quarantined cruise ship in Japan who tested positive for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has more than doubled to 27 over the weekend, according the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) on Monday. 
"The Department of Foreign Affairs, through the Philippine Embassy in Tokyo, reports that as of 16 February 2020, the number of Filipinos on board who have tested positive for COVID-19 is at 27," it said in a statement.
Sixteen new confirmed cases were added last Saturday to the previous 11 that were reported, it said.
The DFA also said that there were no Filipinos among the 70 new confirmed cases announced by the Japanese government on Sunday.

"The Japanese Health Ministry announced that all crew and passengers on board will be tested beginning today, February 17, so that test results will be available by the time the ship’s quarantine period ends," it added.
Earlier this month, the Yokohama-bound cruise ship Diamond Princess was subjected to quarantine after one of the guests who disembarked and joined a bus tour tested positive for COVID-19.
There were 538 Filipinos — 531 crew members and 7 guest passengers — aboard that ship.
The DFA assured that the Philippine Embassy in Japan is coordinating with various stakeholders to ensure the welfare of the Filipino crew and passengers and to facilitate their safe return to the Philippines.
Duque said that authorities will also check if the Athletes' Village in New Clark City — currently being used as a quarantine facility for Filipinos repatriated from China — can still accommodate the affected seafarers and travelers from Japan.
Recent tally shows the virus has already killed 1,765, most of them in China's Hubei province where it is believed to have originated.
Outside of hardest-hit Hubei, the number of new cases has been declining and a spokesman for China's national health authority said Sunday that the slowing figures were a sign the outbreak was being controlled.
However, World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has warned it is "impossible to predict which direction this epidemic will take."
International experts have arrived in Beijing and begun meeting with their Chinese counterparts over the epidemic, Tedros said on Twitter. —with Agence France-Presse/KBK, GMA News

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