Two elderly passengers who were aboard thequarantined Diamond Princess cruise shipdocked in Yokohama, Japan, have died from thecoronavirus, multiple outlets report.
Both passengers had been taken off the ship last week and were being treated in hospitals, according to theBBC. The two passengers were both Japanese nationals in their 80s — an 87-year-old man and an 84-year-old woman — and had preexisting underlying health issues,The New York Timesreported.
According toUSA Today, the Diamond Princess cruise ship is the site of the most coronavirus cases outside of China, with 621 people onboard testing positive for the disease. The two deaths were the first reported fatalities of anyone onboard the ship.
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The ship — which has been quarantined since early February — has started to allowhundreds of passengers to disembark.
Earlier this week, 340 Americans were reportedly evacuated from the Diamond Princess and flew back to the United States. Fourteen of the Americans tested positive for the coronavirus, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the United States to 29.
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Worldwide, there are now over 75,700confirmed casesof the coronavirus, with the majority occurring in mainland China, according to CNN. As of Thursday, the outlet reports that at least 2,126 have died from the respiratory illness.
Coronavirus is a blanket term for several respiratory illnesses, ranging from the common cold to more severe viruses such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). Symptoms typically include fever, cough, trouble breathing, headache and sore throat.
For people who have severe cases, it can turn into pneumonia, SARS, kidney failure and death, according to theWorld Health Organization.
source: people.com
