The Diamond Princess cruise ship is to leave the Japanese port today.
Report informs, citing foreign media, that disinfection procedures had already been conducted on the vessel.
The Diamond Princess was cruising along the seas in Southeast Asia, China, and Japan when the virus was detected in one of its passengers, a Chinese national, who went onshore in Hong Kong. After that, the liner was placed in quarantine in a Japanese port on February 4.
There were nearly 3,700 passengers and crew members on board, with 712 positive for coronavirus. Ten of those infected died in the hospitals of Japan.
Infection Control Today reports that the data collected about the Diamond Princess experience brought to light the danger of asymptomatic carriers of COVID-19 present.
“The results of testing of passengers and crew onboard the Diamond Princess demonstrated a high proportion (46.5%) of asymptomatic infections at the time of testing,” the study states. “Available statistical models of the Diamond Princess outbreak suggest that 17.9% of infected persons never developed symptoms.”
As the Covid-19 is raging throughout the planet, countries are scrambling to fight the pandemic.
But the disease is still there, expanding geographically and taking more lives.
As of today, the number of coronavirus cases has topped 422,000, as many as 109,144 have recovered, while 18,907 have died.
Meanwhile, China plans to lift a two-month quarantine in Hubei. According to local specialists, had the decision to isolate the province been delayed for five days, the area intensively affected by the virus could be three times as large as now. It would have subsequently raised the death toll multifold.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres recently urged G20 leaders to create a WHO-led response mechanism to fight the consequences of the deadly virus.
According to him, the mechanism would reinforce the global response measures and give the countries more opportunities to curb the spread of the disease.
The UN chief believes this would help expand cooperation in the search for vaccines and ways of treatment.