Coronavirus outbreak LIVE: Indians on board Japanese cruise ship recovering as 67 more test positive

The Indian Embassy in Japan Saturday said that health conditions of three Indians on the Diamond Princess cruise ship have improved and no new cases of infection of Indian citizens has emerged. However, according to news agency Reuters, another 67 people have tested positive for the coronavirus on the cruise ship.

Meanwhile, the United States said it would send an aircraft to Japan to bring back US passengers on the quarantined Diamond Princess, where the most coronavirus infections outside China have occurred.

The number of deaths due to the COVID-19 mounted to 1,523 in China after the country's National Health Commission reported 143 new deaths on Saturday morning. With 2,641 more people contracting the disease in the last one day, the total number of cases rose to 66,492. However, this amounts to a significant drop in the new cases from the higher numbers in the recent days since a broader diagnostic method was implemented. COVID-19 stems from a new form of coronavirus and has spread from China's Wuhan province to more than 24 countries since December.

(Inputs from The Indian Express)