Covid-19 positive Filipinos in Japan quarantined ship won’t be brought home

The quarantined ship Diamond Princess is pictured through barbed wire at Yokohama port in Yokohama, near Tokyo on Feb. 17, 2020. - AP

MANILA (Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN): The 27 Filipinos aboard the cruise ship MV Diamond Princess now quarantined at Japan’s Yokohama Port — and tested positive for the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) — cannot join the possible repatriation to be mounted by the Philippine government, the chief of the Department of Health (DOH) said Tuesday (Feb 18).

“They won’t join because they are showing symptoms, ” Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said in an interview over radio station DZMM when asked if the infected Filipinos will be repatriated.