Japan Luxury Cruise Halted After COVID-19 Case

Japan's Nippon Yusen subsidiary NYK Cruises Co said on Friday that its luxury cruise ship Asuka II was returning to port after a passenger tested positive for the coronavirus.

The ship's 295 passengers and 425 crew members will reach Yokohama, just south of Tokyo, around Saturday noon, an NYK Cruises spokeswoman said.

All passengers tested negative prior to the cruise, but the company conducted another round of tests at its boarding reception on Thursday, she said.

The infected passenger is stable and recovering in a cabin that has been isolated, NYK said in a statement, adding that only one other person had been in close contact.

The ship had been scheduled to stop at Aomori and Hokkaido prefectures and return to port on May 5.

In February last year, about 3,700 passengers were quarantined aboard the Diamond Princess, a Carnival Corp cruise liner, for nearly a month, off Japan. More than 700 passengers tested positive and 14 died.

(Reporting by Ritsuko Shimizu, Eimi Yamamitsu; Editing by John Stonestreet and Andrew Cawthorne)