Medical Transport for 769 COVID-19 Patients on a Cruise Ship by Japan Disaster Medical Assistance Team.

The Diamond Princess cruise ship, carrying 3711 passengers and crew members, docked at Yokohama Port in Japan on February 3, 2020. A quarantine was immediately instituted because 1 passenger who had disembarked in Hong Kong was confirmed to have tested positive for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). After the quarantine began, all passengers and crew were tested using the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) polymerase chain reaction assay on the ship, 696 of whom tested positive. In total, 769 patients, including 696 with COVID-19, required transport to a hospital. The Japan Disaster Medical Assistance Team (DMAT) successfully picked up and safely transported the COVID-19 patients using a novel classification system to prioritize patients. The Japan DMAT transported 203 patients to hospitals in Kanagawa and another 566 patients to hospitals in 15 different prefectures.

Persistence of positive severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction test result for 24 days in a hospitalized asymptomatic carrier.

BACKGROUND: Several countries have imposed a mandatory 14-day period of quarantine on individuals arriving from countries considered high-risk for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection. However, it is not clear how long asymptomatic patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 can be an asymptomatic carrier. CASE PRESENTATION: We experienced a case of an asymptomatic female patient infected with SARS-CoV-2 with abnormal chest computed tomography findings. She did not develop a fever during hospitalized isolation. She remained reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction-positive for 24 days. CONCLUSION: An asymptomatic patient diagnosed with SARS-CoV-2 infection remained reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction-positive for 24 days, although she was quarantined in an isolation hospital. This finding suggests that an asymptomatic patient diagnosed with SARS-CoV-2 infection with abnormal chest computed tomography findings can be an asymptomatic carrier for more than 3 weeks.