TOKYO: Japan's health ministry is quarantining a cruise ship off the port of Yokohama after a man from Hong Kong who disembarked the ship recently was found to have been infected with the new coronavirus originating from Wuhan in China's Hubei Province.

Officials of the ministry are checking health conditions of a total of some 3,700 passengers and crew members of the Diamond Princess, which arrived in waters off Daikoku Pier of the port in Yokohama, the capital of Kanagawa Prefecture, eastern Japan, around 7:30 p.m. Monday (10:30 a.m. GMT). Some guests onboard the ship are believed to be complaining of sickness.

The cruise ship was quarantined when it arrived at the port of Naha in the southernmost Japan prefecture of Okinawa on Saturday. But the quarantine clearance was revoked following the discovery of the Hong Kong man's infection.

According to the ministry, those found to have symptoms are tested for the virus. Passengers and crew members will be barred from getting off the cruise ship until the results for all medical inspections become available. The ship will likely be allowed to dock at the port Tuesday evening or later.

According to the Japanese unit of the cruise ship's operator, the Hong Kong man, in his 80s, boarded the Diamond Princess in Yokohama on Jan. 20 and got off at Hong Kong on Jan. 25. His infection was found in a medical checkup at a hospital on Saturday.

After the infected man disembarked from the cruise ship, it headed to Yokohama via Naha.

The ship docked at a port in the city of Kagoshima, southwestern Japan, on Jan. 22. Ministry officials are investigating whether the infected man got off the ship during the visit.

JIJI Press