Two passengers who were quarantined on the Diamond Princess cruise ship died
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Two passengers who were on the cruise ship quarantined because of the coronavirus have died, according to a report.
They were a man and a woman in their 80s, Japanese public broadcaster NHK has said, citing a government source.
More than 620 people have tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, on the Diamond Princess ship.
These are the first deaths from COVID-19 among those held on the ship, which has been quarantined near Tokyo since 3 February.
The deaths come as a group of about 500 passengers were set to disembark on Thursday, two weeks since the quarantine began.
A further 100 people were to leave for chartered flights home, a Japanese health ministry official said.
On Wednesday, an initial group of passengers who had tested negative and shown no symptoms of COVID-19 were allowed to leave the ship.
Japanese officials have not confirmed how many people remain on board or when everyone will be allowed to leave the cruise liner.
A total of 442 people have been confirmed infected with new coronavirus outside mainland China and Japan, based on a tally by NHK. They are in 27 countries and territories.
Eighty-four cases have been reported in Singapore, 82 in South Korea, 65 in Hong Kong, 35 in Thailand, 24 in Taiwan, and 22 in Malaysia.
Germany and Vietnam have each confirmed 16 cases. Australia and the United States have each reported 15 cases.
Twelve cases have been confirmed in France, 10 in Macao, nine each in Britain and the United Arab Emirates, eight in Canada, and three each in India, the Philippines and Italy.
Russia and Spain have each reported two cases.
Nepal, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Finland, Sweden, Belgium and Egypt have one infection each.
Hong Kong has reported two deaths, and the Philippines, France and Taiwan have each reported one death.
