The Department of Health has said  on Saturday that it was moving to “early next week” the repatriation of Filipinos aboard coronavirus disease 2019 -stricken Diamond Princess Cruise docked in Japan in order to complete laboratory tests and comply with quarantine protocols.

The DOH said the decision was made to safeguard the health and safety of around 400 Filipino crew members on board the ship.

The Filipinos were supposed to be brought back home Sunday, February  23.

“IATF-EID (The Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Disease) is adjusting the schedule out of an abundance of caution with a view to safeguarding the health and safety of our OFs (overseas Filipinos) onboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship,” DOH said in a statement.

Coronavirus disease 2019, or  COVID-19, a new strain of coronavirus that has mostly affected China, has infected more than 75,000 people and killed around 2,200.

“This is to allow the Japanese health authorities to complete the laboratory testing the 400-plus Filipino crew members aboard the ship and comply with the established Japanese quarantine protocols,” it said.

The DOH said the Japanese government gave the assurance that the “appropriate health services are being provided” to those on board.

“Our Tokyo Embassy is working closely with the Japanese health and foreign ministry to complete the quarantine protocols for the Philippine Government to repatriate our Filipino crew members as soon as possible,” it said.

More than 600 ship passengers of various nationalities have been confirmed to have contracted the disease, authorities earlier said.

As of Friday, the DOH said the number of Filipinos infected on board the cruise ship has risen to 52.

The ship, with 3,200 people on board, has been quarantined in Yokohama since Feb. 3 after a man, who disembarked in Hong Kong before the ship traveled to Japan, was diagnosed with the virus.

Several countries with nationals on board have either repatriated or taken steps to bring their citizens back home./Stacy Ang