YOKOHAMA -- Some passengers aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship who have been quarantined in the port of Yokohama due to the coronavirus outbreak have been allowed to disembark from the ship from Wednesday, if they are confirmed to not be carrying the virus.
Since the passengers were placed under quarantine aboard the ship two weeks ago, they have been supported by their families, who have been calling them every day or have been dropping off various items for them.
"It's only for a little longer, you can do it. You'll be OK." On Monday morning at Daikoku Pier at Yokohama Port, a 40-year-old woman from Meguro Ward, Tokyo, waved to her parents -- who were standing on the balcony of the ship -- while she was speaking to them on the phone. She had come to deliver homemade hamburger steaks and grilled fish bento boxes.
On Feb. 10, a week after the ship anchored in Yokohama Port, personal deliveries were allowed onto the ship, according to the ship's operating company. The woman, being worried about her parents' health, has made four deliveries to the ship since Feb. 11, bringing them food and other daily necessities.
"At first, since I didn't know anything about the situation aboard the ship, I was really worried," she recalled. "Do you have any problems?" She would call her parents several times a day to talk about her family and to offer some encouraging words.
When she brought her son, who is in the third grade of elementary school, they both yelled from the pier and held up a banner that read, "Grandpa, Grandma, everyone, hang in there!"
"We can finally see the finish line," the woman said.
"I would tear up every time she came to deliver something to us because it made me so happy," the woman's 73-year-old father said, trying to hold back tears during a phone interview with The Yomiuri Shimbun.
As the number of people aboard the ship infected with the coronavirus increased, he said he couldn't dispel his concerns over the likelihood of becoming infected himself while he waited for the test results. But he said he felt immensely supported by his family.
Both of the woman's parents were informed on Tuesday night that they tested negative for the coronavirus, which they then told their family. Even though neither of them showed symptoms of carrying the virus, such as a fever, they still went directly to their home in Shizuoka Prefecture after being let off the ship. They did not want to come in contact with their daughter, just in case they were still contagious. "After some time has passed, we would like to thank her in person," he said.
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