Japan giving 2,000 iPhones to passengers stuck on coronavirus-hit ship

Japan giving 2,000 iPhones to passengers stuck on coronavirus-hit ship
18 Feb 2020

In a bid to help passengers stuck on a coronavirus-hit cruise ship, the government of Japan has resorted to distributing free iPhones.

The vessel was quarantined earlier this month when health officials flagged over 150 cases of the deadly infection.

And now, by distributing iPhones, the government wants to manage the whole situation better.

Here's all about it.

First, a quick recap on the quarantined ship
Ship

On February 4, when the Diamond Princess ship was about to end its 14-day cruise, public health officials jumped onboard and flagged 10 confirmed coronavirus cases.

The detection led them to put the entire ship on lockdown and check other guests and crew members for further infection.

Then, they found over 150 more cases of the virus as others remained locked.

Effort to provide health tips to stuck guests
Effort

As Mac Otakara reports, the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare has partnered with telecom conglomerate SoftBank to distribute 2,000 iPhones to the passengers stuck onboard Princess cruise.

The phones, according to the outlet, will be configured to provide the passengers access to the country's Ministry of Health app, which carries the option to get in touch with the doctors, among other things.

Passengers can also chat with the doctors

"Access the special app by The Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare to ask by chat about medication or any other things that may concern you," the ministry told passengers. "The app will book a consultation session with a medical doctor."

Other country's iPhones cannot download this app
Issue

Japan chose to distribute app-equipped iPhones as many of the phones onboard belonged to foreign passengers.

In such cases, their app stores wouldn't have shown the Japanese health app even if they had tried installing it manually.

The ministry hopes to make sure that there is at least "one unit of phone" in every passenger cabin and crew room.

App would also allow guests to request medications
Other benefits

Among other things, the special iPhones will also allow cruise ship guests to request specific medications or access public health information from medical experiments.

However, at present, it is not exactly clear if these iPhones would have to be returned or the passengers would be allowed to keep them even after coming out of the lockdown period.