Two passengers from coronavirus-stricken cruise ship die in Japan

Enlarge / YOKOHAMA, JAPAN - 2020/02/20: Former passengers of the Diamond Princess cruise ship leave on a chartered bus after spending weeks on board in quarantine. (credit: Getty | SOPA Images)

Two former passengers of the Diamond Princess cruise ship have died in Japan after contracting the new coronavirus as it ran rampant among the 3,711 people on board.

The two deceased passengers were an 87-year-old man and an 84-year-old woman, both Japanese, according to the Japanese health ministry. Local media reported that they had been taken from the ship to hospitals on February 11 and 12. Both had underlying health conditions, according to local media.

The deaths are the first reported from the cruise ship's COVID-19 outbreak, which has hit 621 confirmed cases since the first case detected February 1. According to local media, 27 others sickened on the ship are in serious condition. Given that preliminary estimates of the disease's mortality rate in China is around 2 percent, experts at the World Health Organization said Thursday that they were not surprised by the cruise ship deaths.

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