Diamond Princess confirms 66 more cases of coronavirus as global death toll climbs past 900

Sakata; Japan - 30 Sep 2019 : Tourist are Boarding the Diamond princess cruise in Sakata port; Japan.

An additional 66 cases of coronavirus have been confirmed onboard Diamond Princess, Princess Cruises has confirmed, bringing the total cases to 135.

Princess Cruises told Travel Weekly in a statement that four Australians are among the new cases bringing the total number of Australian passengers who were on board the ship and have tested positive for the disease to 11.

The cruise line also confirmed it would refund all guests onboard the ship including air travel, hotel, ground transportation, pre-paid shore excursions and gratuities and they will not be charged for any onboard incidental charges during the additional time onboard.

Those quarantined on the ship will also get a “future cruise credit” equal to the cruise fare paid for the voyage, which was supposed to end on February 4.

Diamond Princess has been quarantined since arriving in Yokohama on 3 February after a passenger who disembarked in Hong Kong on 25 January was diagnosed with the virus.

The Australian Department of Health has confirmed the number of cases confirmed has risen to more than 40,000 globally, with China’s health ministry confirming an extra 3,062 cases over the past 24 hours.

The death toll of the virus now sits at 908 people.

Meanwhile, a 61-year-old Australian woman who caught coronavirus on board Diamond Princess and is quarantined in a Japanese hospital told ABC News she was passing her time by planning her next cruise.

“[I’d go back] in a heartbeat,” she said.

“At 2:00am this morning, I was googling the Princess [Cruises] website to see what I could book next.”

The woman said she felt as though she had a head cold and if she were at home, she would have taken “some paracetamol” and would be “just getting on with my day”.

A Melbourne-based woman who is quarantined on the ship with her family in a small cabin with no windows said she had no regrets on her decision to cruise.

“We have the bridge cam on the TV to give us a feel of a window. The main thing is we lose sense of time,” she told ABC News.

A Gold Coast couple quarantined on the ship are also making light of the situation by managing to get their wine club to deliver a bottle of their favourite red to their room via drone.

Source: Facebook

According to the Courier-Mail, the delivery flummoxed the Japan coast guard but provided the couple with their very own happy hour despite not having access to any of the ship’s bars.

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