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About 3,700 people have been quarantined on board the Diamond Princess for two weeks
Passengers stranded on a quarantined cruise ship in Japan are now allowed to disembark, the Foreign Office has said.
There are 74 British nationals on the Diamond Princess ship, which was quarantined on 3 February after an outbreak of coronavirus onboard.
On Wednesday, when the 14-day quarantine period ended, the cruise operator and Japanese officials allowed passengers to disembark.
The UK government said it hopes to fly the Britons back “later this week”.
“We are planning an evacuation flight from Tokyo to the UK as soon as possible for Britons who are on the Diamond Princess,” the Foreign Office said in a statement.
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Passengers began leaving the ship around 2:00 GMT, Reuters reported
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There have been more than 500 confirmed cases of the virus Covid-19 on the ship
“At 07:00 local time on Wednesday, the Diamond Princess cruise operator and Japanese authorities allowed passengers to disembark from the cruise ship. However there is a chance that people who disembark will not be able to join the evacuation flight.
“We have the utmost concern for the affected Britons and strongly encourage them to register for the evacuation flight.”
As of Tuesday, there were 88 new cases of infection on board the ship, bringing the total to 542 confirmed cases, Japanese officials said. It is the largest cluster of cases outside China.
It has been in quarantine in the Japanese port of Yokohama.
The US has already evacuated more than 300 of its citizens from the ship. South Korea, Canada, Australia, Israel and Hong Kong are also planning evacuations.
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The ship has been in Yokohama, a city south of Tokyo
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The US chartered two planes to bring back its citizens from the cruise ship
Earlier, Japan’s health minister said all passengers still on board had been tested for the virus and those who had tested negative would start leaving the ship on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, there was confusion over whether a British couple on board the ship – who had been giving regular updates to journalists and via social media – had tested positive for the virus.
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Two Britons on the ship, Sally and David Abel, have told their son they have tested positive for the virus
The son of Sally and David Abel, from Northamptonshire, said his parents emailed to say they had both tested positive and were going to hospital.
However son Steve Abel said that subsequent Facebook posts from his father suggested they were being taken to a hostel instead, adding “no-one knows what’s going on”.
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Hours later, a Facebook post from Mr Abel’s account said there had been a “massive communication error” and explained there was confusion over whether the test was positive.
He said Japanese quarantine officials did not speak any English and added: “The consulate in Tokyo are being very good with me. I am being listened to and Sally & I feel really well.”
Steve said the UK government’s treatment of his parents had been “appalling”, adding: “They haven’t got back to us on anything and we have been calling them every day for four or five days.”
“They are very high-spirited people,” he said. “But in the last two days I’ve seen the cracks in the armour and they are getting down.”
Another British passenger on board the ship, Elaine Spencer, said she had been “very disappointed” with the UK government’s initial response and they should have organised a rescue flight sooner.
She told Radio 4’s Today programme that British passengers who wanted to get on the rescue flight had to sign an agreement that they would go into quarantine for 14 days on their return to the UK.
“I need to go home, I want to see my family but obviously it’s going to be another 14 days (after the flight). I wish that they’d decided to do this last week.”
According to official figures on Monday, four Britons from the ship are in hospital in Japan with confirmed coronavirus.
Irish foreign minister Simon Coveney confirmed two out of six Irish passengers on the Princess Diamond tested positive for the virus and are being treated in hospital in Japan.
Mr Coveney said the passengers have dual citizenship with another EU member state and did not normally live in Ireland – but that the Irish embassy in Tokyo was in contact with them.
The president of Princess Cruises, Jan Swartz, said the company has sent more doctors and nurses on to the ship.
The Foreign Office is advising affected British nationals to call the British embassy in Tokyo on +81 3 5211 1100.
As of Tuesday at 14:00 GMT, in the UK a total of 4,916 people had been tested for coronavirus. Only nine people have tested positive and the rest have been confirmed negative.
Have you been affected by what’s happening on the Diamond Princess cruise ship? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.
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