TOKYO, Japan — After staying in quarantine on the Diamond Princess cruise ship for more than two weeks, the wife of an East Tennessee couple has tested negative for coronavirus just days after a positive test returned.
Dr. Arnold Hopland and his wife, Jeanie Hopland, have been stuck in Tokyo amid the outbreak ever since she tested positive for the virus. She was taken to a Tokyo hospital on Monday, along with other two passengers who also tested positive.
Her husband remained in quarantine on the ship. He did not have any positive tests.
She will continue to stay in the hospital, despite the negative test result, her husband said. According to Arnold Hopland, it is the hospital's policy to keep patients until they are symptom-free and have two consecutive negative tests.
The hospital ran out of testing kits after her first one came back negative, he said. No information is available as to when the hospital may get more kits.
"Therefore, she must remain in the hospital until they are able to find more testing kits so she can have a second test which we assume will also be negative," he said. "Only God knows and he's keeping it a secret."
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He added that she did also have a negative scan for pulmonary injuries which would signify a potential coronavirus infection.
"I have thought from the outset with no symptomatology that her first positive test was a false positive," Arnold Hopland said.
The pair have been in Japan since the beginning of the month.
Although Arnold Hopland tested negative since the beginning, he chose to stay in Japan to be as close to his wife as possible. Several other passengers of the Diamond Princess have since returned back to the United States after also testing negative.
Nearly 1,873 people have died from the novel coronavirus, and that statistic continues to grow as the number of infected has risen beyond 70,000.
Almost half of China's population is also facing travel restrictions and different levels of quarantine. The latest count shows 73,325 cases worldwide.