TOKYO: A Japanese quarantine official and a health ministry official, who both worked aboard the coronavirus-hit Diamond Princess cruise ship docked near Tokyo, have been confirmed to have the virus, the ministry said Monday.

Both have been hospitalized with symptoms such as fever, the ministry said.

The number of government officials who worked on the cruise ship at the port of Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, and caught the virus rose to six.

The quarantine official in his 50s had been on duty onboard since Feb. 3 and complained of fatigue on Tuesday, the ministry said.

The ministry official in his 40s had been engaging in clerical work on the ship since Feb. 15 with two others whose infections were confirmed on Thursday, the ministry said.

In Hokkaido, northern Japan, on Monday, four new cases of the virus, including a man in his 50s and a woman in her 20s, were confirmed. In Kanagawa, a man in his 50s was found to have caught the virus.

A man in his 50s, one of the four family members in Sagamihara, Kanagawa, who were confirmed infected on Saturday, has been identified as an employee of East Japan Railway Co., or JR East, the city government said.

He is an employee of a JR East group company who works at Sagamihara Station but does not face customers directly, the railway operator said.

JIJI Press