Sixty-seven Indonesian crew members working on the Diamond Princess cruise ship were confirmed to have tested negative for the Covid-19 coronavirus infection.
"Out of 69 specimens, 67 were confirmed obviously negative," government spokesman for the management of Coronavirus, Achmad Yurianto, said during a press conference at the Ministry of Health in Jakarta on Tuesday.
Yurianto, the Secretary of the Directorate General of Prevention and Control of Disease (P2P) at the Ministry of Health, said the government still is examining two specimens.
The 69 Indonesians had been undergoing a 14-day quarantine period aboard the Diamond Princess and were declared as being free of infection by Japanese health officials.
However, Indonesian health authorities plan to re-examine 69 Indonesian crew members who were aboard the Diamond Princess.
The 69 Indonesian crew members from the Diamond Princess were kept in quarantine on the island of Sebaru.
Meanwhile, the results of examinations of the 188 Indonesian crew members aboard the World Dream cruise ship were confirmed as being negative.
The Indonesian Government had earlier chosen Sebaru Kecil Island in Jakarta's Thousand Islands as the coronavirus (COVID-19)-related quarantine site for 188 Indonesians from the World Dream liner’s crew who had been repatriated one week ago.
In the face of the outbreak, Dream Cruises had earlier announced that departures of several of its cruise ships were suspended and many crew members, including 188 Indonesians employed on the World Dream cruise ship, were sent home.
The outbreak, which initially struck the Chinese city of Wuhan at the end of 2019, forced several airlines, including national flag carrier Garuda Indonesia, to suspend direct flights to and from mainland China.
In another development, two Indonesians who had tested positive for COVID-19 have been identified as residents of Depok City, West Java, a neighboring area of the capital Jakarta, Health Minister Terawan Agus Putranto reported on Monday.
The patients – a 64-year-old woman and her 31-year-old daughter – had contracted the virus from a Japanese national who had visited Indonesia and was in close contact with them.
The Japanese tested positive while in Malaysia, after leaving Indonesia.
This deadly virus has killed nearly 3,000 people worldwide, most of whom live in China, and infected over 88,400 people worldwide.
Related news: World Dream, Diamond Princess evacuees to undergo separate observation
Related news: Repatriation process for 69 Indonesian Diamond Princess crew begins
(INE)
Translator: Martha H, Azis Kurmala
Editor: Suharto
Copyright © ANTARA 2020
