An Italian cruise ship docked in a southern Japanese port city of Nagasaki had 43 more new cases in an outbreak that erupted this week, bringing the total infected to 91, local officials said Friday.
The outbreak on the Costa Atlantica surfaced Tuesday when officials from Nagasaki and Mitsubishi Heavy Industry, which is in charge of repairs and maintenance on the ship, announced that a crew member developed a cough and fever.
The ship has no passengers and 623 crew, whose nationalities are not disclosed.
Officials suspect they had contracted the virus while in town or when the ship switched crew.
Officials said they plan to have all the remaining crew members tested by the end of Friday All but one of the infected crew, who was sent to a hospital and is in serious condition, remain on board and self-quarantining themselves in single rooms each.
Japanese officials are still investigating how the outbreak started on the ship.
More From This Section
The case has puzzled authorities because the southern port city has a relatively low number of infections and the vessel has been docked since the end of January.
In Tokyo, the health minister Katsunobu Kato said that the central government and Italy were to discuss ways to arrange repatriation of healthy crew members, as well as an earliest possible departure of two other Italian cruise ships, Costa Cerena and Costa Neo Romantica, also docked in Nagasaki.