Arab News Japan

Former passengers of the Diamond Princess ship that experienced a mass COVID-19 outbreak five years ago laid flowers on Monday in memory of the 13 people who died.

The ship, which was docked at the Yokohama port, had an outbreak of infections in February 2020 and led to thousands being quarantined. Japan stopped accepting foreign cruise ships following the incident for the next three years.

The Diamond Princess arrived in Japan on Feb. 3 and passengers infected with COVID-19 began disembarking on Feb. 14, with most others starting to leave from Feb. 19 and the process completed by March 1.

The ship was criticized for its lack of strict quarantine rules, such as confining passengers to their cabins immediately after the first case of COVID was confirmed.

The memorial event had a board with the words ‘Never let such a tragedy happen again’ printed on it, along with the dates of the deaths read out.

The Diamond Princess departed Yokohama on Jan. 20, 2020, with a passenger who had disembarked in Hong Kong testing positive for COVID-19 on Feb. 1.

712 passengers out of the 3,711 passengers and crew on board were infected and 13 of them died, with an additional fatality occurring after a passenger returned home to Australia.