Chinese nationals aboard Diamond Princess will be evacuated to HKSAR

Passengers leave the port on a bus after disembarking the quarantined Diamond Princess cruise ship in Yokohama, Japan, February 19, 2020. /AP Photo

The government of China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) will dispatch charter flights to evacuate Chinese passengers on board the Diamond Princess cruise ship to Hong Kong, the Chinese Embassy in Japan said in a statement on Wednesday.

The first charter flight will depart Tokyo's HanedaAirport at 1:45 a.m. local time on Thursday, said the statement.

Around 500 passengers from the Diamond Princess cruise ship who have tested negative for the novel coronavirus disembarked on Wednesday morning in Japan's Yokohama City, according to NHK.

The cruise ship was put on a two-week quarantine that is due to end on Wednesday.

Among all the passengers, at least 247 Japanese passengers aboard the Diamond Princess were diagnosed with the novel coronavirus, more than any other nationality on the cruise ship, NHK reported on Wednesday, citing the country's labor ministry.

A total of 542 COVID-19 cases from 25 countries and regions were confirmed on the ship.

Passengers over the age of 50 accounted for 86.5 percent of all who tested positive for the virus, the report said.