Quarantined passengers disembark ship in Japan

Passengers who have tested negative for coronavirus have started to disembark from the quarantined cruise ship off Japan.

About 500 people, who've shown no symptoms of the disease, will leave the Diamond Princess and be subjected to an additional 14 days of quarantine once they return home.

It comes after 14 US nationals, who were recently evacuated from the ship, contracted the virus despite testing negative for it two to three days before they flew home.

Officials added that passengers who tested negative but shared cabins with infected people would continue to remain on board.

The ship docked at Yokohama has been under quarantine since February 3 and has become the biggest concentration of infections outside of China with 545 confirmed cases.

Meanwhile, the death toll in mainland China passed 2,000, with the total number of cases crossing over 74,000.