Coronavirus cases on ‘plague ship’ cruise DOUBLE to 136 in a day as second Brit infected and passengers beg to leave
CRUISE passengers trapped on a plague ship in Japan are begging to be allowed off as another 66 tested positive for coronavirus today - doubling the total to 136.
Around 3,600 people are being held in quarantine as the killer bug spreads like wildfire through the Diamond Princess ship.
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Today, officials in hazmat suits erected tarpaulins to cover a gangway as the infected patients were taken off the ship and to hospital.
A second Briton and 11 more Americans were reportedly among the 66 new patients who tested positive.
Authorities are still testing hundreds of people on the ship, which has been docked in Yokohama harbour south of Tokyo for almost a week.
Those stuck on board face a gruelling wait of at least another nine days until February 19 to disembark.
Passengers have been told to stay in their cabins and are allowed only brief trips to open decks.
They have to wear face masks and rubber gloves and must avoid contact with others. They have also been given thermometers to monitor their own temperatures.
Ship captain Stefano Ravera insisted the new cases does not mean the isolation isn't working.
He said: “It was not unexpected, the additional cases, involving individuals exposed prior to the start of the quarantine.”
It came as the death toll from coronavirus reached 910, a leap of almost 100 in a day, with more than 40,000 cases.
The Diamond Princess now has almost a third of the world's 440 confirmed cases outside mainland China.
Around 600 people on board are in urgent need of medication, Japan's health ministry said. Half received supplies over the weekend.
By the end of the quarantine - if it is not extended - they will have been on the ship for a month since the two-week cruise began on January 20.
The outbreak is said to have started in one passenger who left the boat in Hong Kong.
The virus had the vessel before the new cases were confirmed today.
British honeymooner Alan Steele, 58, is among those who were taken for extra checks in hospital after testing positive for coronavirus.
His nurse wife Wendy begged to be allowed off so she could look after him.
Isolation is becoming a problem for many on board, especially those confined to windowless cabins on the inside.
And there was outrage when it was claimed the crew are charging extra for drinks to be brought to their cabins.
Elaine Spencer, 54, of Sittingbourne, Kent, told The Sun: “''We are all going stir crazy on here. We just want to get off and go home but we can't.
"They’ve started charging a tray fee of 18 per cent for drinks brought to cabins. That’s a bit cheeky as we can’t leave our cabins.”
"I know it probably works out to hardly anything but it's the principle of it - how can they get away with charging when we are confined to our cabins."
On Saturday, American honeymooners Milena Basso and Gaetano Cerullo claimed food and water were in short supply on board and begged Donald Trump for help.
She told Fox News: “We need help. We are in a desperate, desperate state.”
Ashley Rhodes-Courter, an American whose parents are on the ship, said she hoped US officials would be able to help them leave.
She said: “They are all breathing circulated contaminated air so they could be getting everyone infected.”
And British passenger David Abel described the ship as a “floating prison”.
A second cruise liner, the World Dream, was quarantined for four days in Hong Kong with 3,600 on board after 30 crew showed possible symptoms.
But they were all allowed to leave on Sunday after all 1,800 crew tested negative.
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Meanwhile in the UK, ministers declared coronavirus a serious threat to public health and announced plans for patients to be forcible quarantined if necessary.
And a frantic search was underway for a British "super spreader" who has infected at least seven others.
