MANILA - The number of Filipinos confirmed to have contracted the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) while on board a quarantined cruise ship moored off Japan has climbed to 11, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said Thursday.
All of the Filipinos who got the virus are crew members of Diamond Princess, Foreign Affairs Secretary Eduardo Meñez said in a text message to ABS-CBN News.
"All of them are now confined in various hospitals in and around the Tokyo area," the agency said in a statement, adding they are responding well to treatment.
The Philippine Embassy in Tokyo has sent supplies to the patients and also those still quarantined inside the ship.
"An embassy team also visited the hospitals this afternoon to speak with the doctors and social workers assigned to the Filipino patients in order to ensure their well-being," the agency added.
The ship has been kept in quarantine since Feb. 3 after a passenger, who disembarked in Hong Kong, was found to be infected with the virus.
Passengers are expected to stay until Feb. 19, 14 days after the isolation period began.
A Filipino crew member of the ship was among 10 people who earlier tested positive of the new coronavirus. The sailor was the first known case of a Filipino infected with COVID-19.
Also on Thursday, Japanese authorities confirmed that another 44 people inside the ship tested positive of the virus.
They raise the number of infections detected on the ship to 218, in addition to a quarantine officer who also tested positive for the virus.
Of the newly diagnosed cases, 43 are passengers, and one a member of the crew.
So far, 713 people have been tested, with officials saying they are currently limited by capacity. The ship carries an estimated 3,600 passengers.
The DFA also clarified that "no Filipinos [were] included in a new group of 44 persons who tested positive for the virus." - with a report from Willard Cheng, ABS-CBN News
source: news.abs-cbn.com
TOKYO - An express train and a truck collided in Japan's second-largest city of Yokohama on Thursday, train operator Keikyu Corp said, with fire officials confirming that about 30 people were injured.
The collision on a key rail link to Tokyo, the capital, smashed the glass in the driver's compartment and derailed at least the first 3 carriages of the 8-carriage train, video images showed, as rescuers surrounded the site.
"The sound of glass breaking was incredible," one passenger told national broadcaster NHK. "By the time I knew what had happened, the carriage was all smashed up."
The truck driver was severely hurt, but the injuries to the passengers and driver of the train did not immediately appear to be serious, NHK added.
Earlier, black smoke billowed from parts of the derailed train and the truck, which was crushed between the train and a wall, while smashed boxes and what appeared to be oranges littered the tracks.
Authorities, including the transport ministry, said they were investigating the cause but were unable to provide further details. Police confirmed a collision between a vehicle and the train, but could not elaborate, citing further investigations.
Images of people evacuating the train, a twisted electrical pole and train seats covered with broken glass figured in video posted on social media by shaken passengers.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
Princess Mako, the first grandchild of Japanese Emperor Akihito and the elder daughter of Prince Akishino, will soon become engaged to a man who went to the same university in Tokyo, the Imperial Household Agency said Tuesday.
The 25-year-old princess will become engaged to Kei Komuro, a 25-year-old graduate student at Tokyo's Hitotsubashi University who lives in Kohoku Ward in Yokohama, near Tokyo, and who also works at a law firm, agency chief Shinichiro Yamamoto said.
It will be the first engagement among the four grandchildren of the emperor and Empress Michiko. The last marriage of a Japanese princess took place in October 2014 when Princess Noriko, the 28-year-old daughter of Emperor Akihito's late cousin Prince Takamado, tied the knot with Kunimaro Senge, the eldest son of the chief priest of Izumo Taisha, a Shinto shrine in Shimane Prefecture.
Princess Mako met Komuro about five years ago through a friend at International Christian University, which they both attended, and later accepted a marriage proposal from him, according to an agency source. Prince Akishino and his wife Princess Kiko have accepted the two as a couple, the source said.
The news comes at a time when Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government is preparing a bill for submission to the current Diet session to enable the 83-year-old emperor to hand over the Chrysanthemum throne to Crown Prince Naruhito, in what would be Japan's first abdication in around 200 years.
The envisioned succession will make Prince Akishino, the crown prince's younger brother, the next in line to the throne.
Under the Imperial House Law, female members of the imperial family will lose the status of royal family members when they marry commoners.
So when Princess Mako marries at some point in the near future, the number of imperial family members will drop to 18 and that of female members to 13.
The main opposition Democratic Party has been calling for deeper debate on enabling princesses to establish their own branches within the imperial family after they marry commoners as a way to cope with the shrinking size of the royal family.
To that end, the Democratic Party is seeking a special resolution to be attached to the emperor's abdication bill when parliament mulls the bill, but the ruling Liberal Democratic Party has been reluctant about that move.
Princess Mako enrolled at International Christian University in Tokyo in April 2010, becoming the first imperial family member to attend the university. She studied in the Faculty of Arts and majored in arts and cultural property studies. She also studied at the University of Edinburgh in Britain as an exchange student for nine months when she was a junior at ICU.
After graduation, she went on to study at the University of Leicester in Britain, where she obtained a master's degree in art museum and gallery studies in January 2016.
Currently the princess is an affiliate researcher at the University Museum of the University of Tokyo, while studying in a doctoral program at International Christian University.
She also attends ceremonies and serves as an honorary president of some events, such as the Tokyo International Book Fair, as part of her official duties.
Her younger sister Princess Kako, 22, also attends International Christian University, and her younger brother, Prince Hisahito, 10, is the only male imperial family member in his generation. He is currently third in line to the throne after Crown Prince Naruhito and his father Prince Akishino.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
