Cruise ship arrives in Japan with 43 new virus cases

An Italian cruise ship docked in southern Japan had 43 more new cases in an outbreak that erupted this week, bringing the ship's total to 91, Japanese officials said Friday.

The outbreak on the Costa Atlantica surfaced Tuesday when officials from the port city of Nagasaki announced that a crew member developed a cough and fever.

The ship has 623 crew on board but no passengers. Officials suspect they contracted the virus in town or when the ship switched crew.

Officials said they plan to have the remaining crew members tested by the end of Friday.

One person was sent to a hospital in serious condition, and the remaining crew are on board self-quarantining in single rooms.

Japanese officials are investigating how the outbreak started. Nagasaki has only 17 infections and the vessel has been docked since late January.

In Tokyo, the health minister Katsunobu Kato said the central government and Italy were to discuss ways to arrange repatriation of healthy crew members, as well as an earliest possible departure of two other Italian cruise ships, Costa Serena and Costa Neo Romantica, also docked in Nagasaki.

Japan is under a coronavirus state of emergency and hospitals are becoming overwhelmed.

Japan has 12,388 cases, and another 712 cases from an onboard outbreak on a cruise ship quarantined near Tokyo earlier this year, with 330 deaths.

In early March, passengers were allowed off the Costa Fortuna in Singapore after it was rejected from Malaysia and Thailand over virus fears.

For most people, the new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks.

But the virus is highly contagious and can be spread by those with mild or no visible symptoms.

For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia, and could lead to death.