turning now to China where health
authorities say more people have fallen
victim to the coronavirus they say the
death toll has exceeded 900 and that
more than 40,000 cases of the virus are
now reported across the country
now that after thousands of people were
allowed to disembark from a cruise ship
in Hong Kong after a four day quarantine
resulted in passengers testing negative
for the virus but at least 65 more
people have tested positive for the
coronavirus aboard a cruise ship docked
off the coast of Japan passengers on the
vessel coat a diamond princess have been
in quarantine since the ship arrived at
the port of Yokohama just last week the
new cases bring the total number of
infected passengers to more than a
hundred and thirty passengers have been
largely confined to their cabins apart
from shared air brakes to get fresh air
the quarantine is expected to last until
February the 19th joining me now on
board the cruise ship in Yokohama we
have a couple Cheryl and Paul molesky
welcome to both of you how are you
feeling first of all and what is the
situation like on board well we're both
feeling fine so far the situation is we
have to stay in our cabin and not go out
in the ship at all but luckily we have a
balcony so we can get some fresh air and
some sunshine and that's really made a
big difference in our daily life here
and what about your board how are you
feeling I feel very good very fortunate
I feel that the Japanese government and
Princess Cruises have done an excellent
job but we do know that they're but a
hundred and thirty confirmed infections
on the boat and those people have now
been taken off the ship are you worried
at all you might catch the infection
yeah I mean we're worried definitely
it's hard not to be but we're trying to
keep positive out
because there's nothing we can do about
it and you think about in the USA 10,000
to 25,000 people die of the flu every
three or four months and that's a pretty
big number so we're just hoping that we
stay set healthy and that we do okay and
do you feel Paul that you and the
passengers are being taken well care off
on the vessel and this adequate medical
attention I feel we've been take care
very well yeah we've gotten masks we got
thermometers we got medicines that my
wife needs I think we've done
unbelievably well and tell us give us a
sense of what your day looks like on
board the vessel are you basically
confined to your cabins with occasional
kind of trips that you can make outside
and get some fresh air we are confined
to our cabins and you can go out if you
like for an hour every couple days maybe
three or four days actually but we've
chosen to stay in because we have the
balcony we really don't want to expose
ourselves anymore but our daily life
right now is pretty busy actually
because you're texting our family and
friends and we've been doing some
YouTube videos which is kind of
different for us but doing some videos
to kind of catch people up on what we're
doing and we've gotten a lot of good
feedback about that so you could search
for Cheryl molesky to look at those and
just keep it busy with her and another
question do you have any contact face to
face contact with other passengers on
the vessel Ohio being kept completely
away from each other well we're being
kept completely away from each other but
luckily Paul's brother and our
sister-in-law are on the boat next to us
and we do see people we see you in the
hall when we get our lunch and breakfast
and dinner
you know across the hallway you kind of
just wave and say how are you doing are
you okay and then we see a lot of people
on the balcony the balcony we can wave
to each other we could talk to each
other you know they're down a Decker
over a couple cabins and the Japanese
people actually came and a bunch of
people on jet skis and boats came along
the side of the phone the other day and
played music and we're shouting you know
welcome to us and they were you know
really encouraging and that was that was
a really neat way to connect and there
were lots of people so you're getting a
fair bit of support from the people of
Japan to your predicament because when
looking from the outside one gets a
sense that you might feel trapped
sitting on a boat with all these people
with very little contact physical
contact with other people on the vessel
with you yeah some people do feel that
way I think again they're very fortunate
you know it's just we take the right
room so we can get out we have a nice
time getting our meals together we pull
a little table out to eat whether we're
eating in our room or out on the balcony
in the Sun you know I had my bathing
suit on for a while try what you'd
imagined I guess you know crews we
actually finished our cruise we were
gonna be going to spend some time in
Japan touring on the Japan railways but
that we're missing and we're
disappointed in that we'd like to even
stay if we could depending on the
situation but but we've completed our
cruise that we had a wonderful time too
and do you have any kind of time frame
as to what happens next in the couple of
days ahead of you are you getting
regular updates from the crew of the
ship the captain comes on like three or
four times a day he doesn't always have
information right away like we heard
about the 65 people cases today before
the captain was able to confirm that but
he waits until II years from the
kitchens government yeah the Health
Ministry so when he confirmed that he
came on and told us right away they've
been good communicating about about
things and you've been very good
committed thank you very much Cheryl and
for molesky talking to us you're on both
the diamond princess off the coast of
Japan in foreign teen as a result of the
coronavirus thank you very much for
talking to us and it's a relief to see
that you both seem to be in very good
health and you're being made cheerful
about the situation thank you