STA, 20 February 2020 - Two passengers aboard the cruise ship Diamond Princess are the first Slovenians to test positive for the novel coronavirus COVID-19, the Foreign Ministry said. The couple, albeit asymptomatic, was hospitalised in Japan this morning. The other four Slovenian passengers tested negative. Two have already returned to Slovenia with a commercial flight.
The couple who tested positive are asymptomatic and feel fine, Maja Sočan of the National Institute of Public Health (NIJZ) said at a special press conference at the Foreign Ministry.
They have also been given a phone number where a Slovenian infectologist is available to them 24 hours a day, Simona Repar Bornšek, a state secretary at the Health Ministry said.
Meanwhile, the first Slovenian couple to disembark the cruise ship landed at Brnik airport in the early hours today. They were received by a medical team and they tested negative for COVID-19 once again.
They will nevertheless remain in isolation at home for the next 14 days and have requested privacy. They will be tested repeatedly until the end of their isolation period. The same procedure is foreseen for when the other uninfected couple returns to Slovenia.
Repar Bornšek, who was at the airport with the medical team when the first couple returned, said they were in good spirits and understood completely that they needed to be isolated. She commended them for taking precautionary measures, like wearing masks and taking their temperature during their travel.
When asked whether other passengers travelling on the commercial flight with the couple had been alerted, Sočan said that they were not a threat to their environment at the moment because they are not carrying the virus and that there was no medical reason to alert other flight passengers.
Andrej Šter, the head of the Foreign Ministry's Consular Service, said that the pair had left Japan on a commercial flight after having consulted the Slovenian Embassy in Tokyo and that the Foreign Ministry was happy that they managed to do so.
He said that the other couple that likewise tested negative decided to return with an evacuation flight organised by the EU for European passengers. As part of preparations for the evacuation flight an Italian medical team was also sent to Yokohama and only healthy passengers will be able to board the plane.
It is not yet clear when this will happen, as Japan seems to have reservations as regards permitting take-off for the evacuation flight. It is, however, unclear what these reservations are, Šter said.
He also said that Slovenia would try to evacuate the couple who tested positive as soon as possible, if possible.
Under the protocol in place in Japan, asymptomatic patients are admitted to a hospital, where they are tested for COVID-19 12 days later and again after another 12 days, Sočan said. If the final test is negative, it is considered that the infection had run its course and they are free to leave.
Diamond Princess has been quarantined in Yokohama for two weeks, with more than 620 of its 3,700 passengers and crew testing positive for COVID-19.
Quarantine ended on Wednesday and passengers have begun disembarking, undergoing health checks before being allowed to leave the ship. Japanese media reported today that two elderly passengers from the Diamond Princess treated for COVID-19 have died.
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