Canada, along with US and Hong Kong, to evacuate it citizens from Diamond Princess

Canada has recently announced that it will be taking steps to evacuate its citizens who are currently stuck on board the coronavirus infected Diamond Princess cruise liner which is docked in Yokohama, Japan. Earlier, the United States and Hong Kong also announced that they will be evacuating its citizens from the quarantined cruise ship.

Symptomatic passengers will not be allowed on board

The cruise liner, Diamond Princess, has become the source of the largest number of coronavirus infected cases outside of mainland China. All three nations will be sending planes to Japan in order to bring back its citizens. According to reports, the Canadian government said that Canadian passengers aboard the cruise liner that exhibit symptoms of the coronavirus or have been tested positive will not be allowed aboard the flight. 

They will instead be in the care of the Japanese health care system and will receive appropriate care from there. The statement added that after arriving in Canada, all the passengers will undergo a 14-day period of quarantine.

Read: South Korea To Evacuate Citizens From Cruise Ship Quarantined In Japan

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The Diamond Princess cruise ship has 3,700 passengers and crew on-board. The ship has been docked at Yokohama since February 3. The Diamond Princess ship has been quarantined for more than a week now and over 250 people have been diagnosed with the virus. The ship's quarantine period is set to end on February 19. 

South Korea to evacuate its citizens

South Korea announced on February 16 that it would evacuate Koreans that were quarantined on a coronavirus infected cruise ship in the Japanese port of Yokohama, according to international media reports. The step was taken after 355 people were found to be infected with the virus. The Minister of Health and Welfare Park Neung-hoo briefed that the government has decided to bring the Koreans home if they test negative at thermal screenings to be conducted by the Japanese authorities. 

(Image Credit:@JoeB14ck/Twitter)

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