Japanese health minister Katsunobu Kato said Sunday that health condition will be checked every day for all people who recently got off the Diamond Princess after the end of the cruise ship's quarantine over the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak.

The measure was prompted by the discovery that a woman in her 60s from Tochigi Prefecture, eastern Japan, was infected with the coronavirus although she initally tested negative and got off the ship.

The daily health checks will cover about 980 former passengers with no symptoms who left the ship after testing negative for the virus.

For two weeks after they got off the ship, public health centers of respective areas will interview them every day by phone about body temperature and whether they have such symptoms as coughing or drowsiness.

Even if there are no such symptoms, the former passengers will be asked to avoid using public transportation.

The health ministry issued related notice to prefectural governments across the nation on Sunday.

So far, the former passengers have been asked to check their condition including whether they have fever every day for two weeks according to a health check sheet.

After Prime Minister Shinzo Abe instructed his government on Sunday to compile a comprehensive basic policy to address the ever-spreading coronavirus infections, Kato told reporters that an experts' panel will hold a meeting at the health ministry on Monday to work on the policy.

Kato suggested that the government's task force on the coronavirus outbreak will adopt the new policy as early as Tuesday.

"At present, it is important to curb the pace of increase in the number of patients as much as possible," he said. "We want to draw up quickly measures that can respond to new developments and show them to the public in the form of a basic policy."

JIJI Press