Experts say the cruise ship quarantine was unjustified and violated human rights, letting the coronavirus 'literally pick them off one by one'

Associated Press

• After an extra 14 days on the waves, passengers and crew left onboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship for a COVID-19 quarantine in Japan are in the process of disembarking.
• The ship has been host to the largest number of diagnosed COVID-19 cases outside China, with more than 540. 
• Public health and bioethics experts caution that such strict quarantines aren't the best way to contain viruses like the novel COVID-19, and that letting people self-monitor their symptoms at home is a more pragmatic (and civil) approach. 
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The Diamond Princess ship, which sits floating alongside Yokohama, Japan, has become the largest incubator of cases of the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, outside China. 

For the past two weeks of quarantine, the number of people living in small cabins aboard the waves there  — originally 3,711 crewmembers and guests — has been rapidly dwindling, as at least 542 cases of the virus have been diagnosed on board, and those ill people taken ashore for medical care by the Japanese Ministry of Health.See the rest of the story at Business Insider

NOW WATCH: Pathologists debunk 13 coronavirus myths

See Also:

• Pharma giant Sanofi is developing a vaccine to fight the deadly coronavirus outbreak using its previous research on SARS
• 14 Americans who got the coronavirus from the quarantined cruise ship in Japan were flown home in an 'isolation box' at the back of the plane
• 'Wholly inappropriate' quarantine practices may have helped spread coronavirus on the Diamond Princess cruise ship, experts say