More cases of COVID-19 — better known as the coronavirus – are being reported on a cruise ship in Japan.
In total, at least 174 passengers and crew members on the Diamond Princess cruise ship are sick. Some of them are American.
The ship is currently docked in Yokohama, where it's been under quarantine since Feb. 3, after a man who'd traveled on the ship in January tested positive for the virus.
Everyone who is diagnosed with the virus is being escorted to hospitals for treatment. The rest of the passengers have been ordered to stay on the ship while Japanese health officials conduct health screenings. So far they've conducted more than 490 of those tests — focusing on the elderly and people already showing possible coronavirus symptoms.
But there were more than 3,700 passengers and crew members on board the ship when it began its journey.
In order to expand the screening process, Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo said the government will now allow private facilities to help with testing. This means about 1,000 samples from the cruise ship can be tested daily, up from the 300 tests that public health facilities are capable of running each day.
Contains footage from CNN.
