One more Indian tests positive for coronavirus on cruise ship off Japan
Tokyo: One more Indian aboard a quarantined cruise ship off Japan was tested positive for the novel coronavirus and shifted to hospital, taking the number of Indian nationals infected with the virus on the vessel to eight, the Indian embassy said on Thursday.
The Diamond Princess cruise ship arrived in Yokohama, near Tokyo, on February 3 with 3,711 passengers and crew on board, 621 people were found to be infected with the deadly coronavirus after it was diagnosed in a man who disembarked last month in Hong Kong.
A total of 138 Indians, including 132 crew and 6 passengers, were among the 3,711 people on board the ship.
In a tweet, the Indian embassy here said, "1 Indian crew who tested positive for #COVID19 among 79 new cases on #DiamondPrincess yesterday too has been shifted to hospital for treatment. All 8 Indians receiving treatment are responding well. Rest all Indians on-board are braving out the trying circumstances."
Earlier, seven Indians were tested positive for the COVID-19.
The mission said that infected Indians were responding well to the treatment.
Meanwhile, some of the passengers with no infection began leaving the ship on Wednesday after the end of a two-week quarantine period that failed to stop the spread of the virus among passengers and crew.
"About 500 more passengers began disembarking on Thursday while another 100 people were to leave for chartered flights home, a health ministry official was quoted as saying by the Japan Today newspaper.
An initial batch of passengers who had tested negative and shown no symptoms left the vessel on Wednesday, the report said.
The Indian embassy earlier said it was making efforts for de-boarding of all the Indians from the ship after the end of the quarantine period and was in discussions with the Japanese government and the ship management company for the disembarkation modalities and welfare of the Indians.
China, where the virus outbreak occurred, is grappling to contain the deadly disease as the number of deaths climbed to to 2,118 on Thursday with the death of 114 more people, mostly in the worst-hit Hubei province.
The virus outbreak originated in China's Hubei province in December and has spread to more than 25 countries, including India.
Many countries have banned arrivals from China while major airlines have suspended flights to the country.
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Bridge portion collapses on Jammu outskirts; 3-4 labourers feared trapped, 1 rescued
Jammu (PTI): A portion of a small bridge collapsed in the Bantalab area on the outskirts of Jammu city on Friday, trapping at least three to four labourers under the debris, while one injured worker was rescued, official sources said.
Authorities have closed the road link following the collapse of the portion of the bridge.
The incident occurred when labourers were carrying out repair work on a retaining wall near the bridge that was damaged in last year's flash floods, the sources said.
According to the sources, a section of the bridge suddenly gave way, burying workers engaged at the site under the rubble.
Police, Army and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) teams launched rescue operations to extricate those buried under the debris. They pulled out one injured labourer and shifted him to a hospital, the sources said.
Family members of the labourers present at the site said around six workers engaged at the site at the time of the incident came under the debris when the structure collapsed. The family members said while two of the labourers managed to escape, four got trapped.
The sources said those trapped included the husband of a woman labourer, a mason, an unmarried labourer and a relative of the contractor.
There was no official confirmation on the exact number of persons trapped under the debris till the filing of this report.
The rescue operations are ongoing.
