ZAGREB, February 20, 2020 – Health Minister Vili Beroš said on Thursday that Croatians from the Diamond Princess cruise ship would be returning to Croatia after 14 days of quarantine on the ship on Thursday and Friday, adding that plans were being made for their reception as the coronavirus epidemiological situation on the ship was worse than in China.
Six Croatians spent two weeks in quarantine aboard the Diamond Princess in the Japanese port of Yokohama due to the coronavirus that spread among the passengers.
Noting that plans were being made for the reception of the Croatian nationals, the minister said that the epidemiological situation on the cruise ship was not entirely clear to him.
“Given the current circumstances, we will act a bit differently,” he said.
“They will return home in different ways, some will arrive today and some tomorrow,” he said.
Asked if the Croatians would be put into quarantine, he said that plans were being made for their reception, stressing that the epidemiological situation on the cruise ship was worse than in China.
“I believe that it is due to the specific circumstances of staying on a vessel and I sincerely hope that that is the only problem,” he added.
The Croatian Foreign and European Affairs Ministry said on Wednesday that a Croatian national who had stayed aboard the Diamond Princess as a passenger left the ship on Wednesday, that he was considered healthy and that there were no restrictions on his movement. As for the other five Croatians who are still on the ship as crew members, they continued their stay in quarantine together with other crew members even though they do not exhibit any symptoms of the disease.
540 cases of infection with the novel coronavirus have been identified on the vessel with 3,700 passengers and crew members.
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