Resident on Cruise Tests Positive for COVID-19

A Riverside County resident who was a passenger on the Diamond Princess cruise ship has tested positive for coronavirus (COVID-19), Riverside County health officials announced Tuesday, Feb. 25.

The individual is expected to fully recover.

The individual, whose name and identifying information are being withheld to protect their privacy, is being housed at a Northern California medical facility, said Dr. Cameron Kaiser, Riverside County public health officer. The individual is listed in good condition.

This individual is being closely monitored and all early indications are that there are no exposures in Riverside County, Kaiser said. There continue to be no locally acquired confirmed cases of coronavirus.

The cruise ship was on a 14-day cruise that started last month with more than 2,600 passengers, some of whom have tested positive for the illness.

All but a handful of the passengers of the disease-stricken Diamond Princess cruise ship berthed in Yokohama have disembarked. But for Japan, the saga is far from over, according to ScienceMag.org. Much of the crew remains on board, enduring another 14 days of quarantine—although this time under conditions that Japanese officials hope will prevent any additional infections.

But there has been another troubling development: As of today, eight public servants who worked on the ship to support the quarantine have tested positive for COVID-19, and more may follow, according to ScienceMag.org. Most of the roughly 90 health ministry employees who visited the ship during the first 2-week quarantine that ended on Feb. 19 initially returned to their normal work duties, but in light of the infections, the health ministry yesterday revised its policy and now those potentially exposed to the virus on the Diamond Princess are self-quarantining at home for 14 days, according to a ministry official who asked not to be identified.