American Infected with Novel Coronavirus on Cruise Ship Off Japan

The Oregonian is reporting that a woman from the area of Portland is one of more than 60 coronavirus victims quarantined on a cruise ship off the Japanese coast.

Rebecca Frasure, 35, was on the Diamond Princess with her husband, Kent Frasure, for their 11th cruise together. She was waiting to be taken off the ship and to go a hospital, she said. She reports feeling well, except for a minor cough.

A Japanese health official and a crew member told her that she had tested positive for coronavirus and her husband tested negative. She will stay at a hospital at least three days. If she gets better, Rebecca Fraser said, she will be taken back to the cruise ship to wait out the rest of the 14-day quarantine. Otherwise, she will stay in the hospital.

An infected passenger boarded the ship in Japan on Jan. 20 and disembarked in Hong Kong on Jan. 25. The ships has nearly 2,700 passengers and 1,045 crew members and had traveled to southern Japan, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Taiwan and Okinawa.

The new coronavirus raging through Asia has killed hundreds of people and infected tens of thousands, most of them in Wuhan, China, the city where the outbreak is believed to have originated. There have been 11 confirmed cases in the United States, including one in Washington.

“It’s weird that so many people are going to know about this,” Rebecca Frasure said.

One of the quarantined passengers is posting up-to-the-minute updates on Twitter in the Japanese language with photos and video.

The ship is now anchored near Tokyo and is in the first days of a two-week quarantine.