TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The charter flight planned to fly Taiwanese citizens back from the Diamond Princess cruise liner in Japan will be postponed since Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) tests for two of the nationals have not been completed, reports said Tuesday (Feb. 18).

As other countries were preparing to repatriate patients and passengers from the ship, Taiwan had been planning to send a plane on Wednesday (Feb. 19) to pick up its own citizens.

However, because the tests of two Taiwanese passengers had not yet indicated whether they have the virus or not, the flight will be postponed by two to three days, CNA reported.

Addressing reports that some passengers were unwilling to board the flight, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) reportedly said later Tuesday that it hoped all Taiwanese citizens from the cruise liner could return together, and that all of them would have to undergo the necessary quarantine measures once back in Taiwan.

An estimated 20 Taiwanese passport holders and between 10 and 15 Taiwanese with United States or Japanese passports have been staying on the cruise liner, which has been docked in Yokohama since Feb. 3, as the number of confirmed coronavirus cases on board climbs to more than 500 out of a total number of 3,711 passengers and crew.

A middle-aged Taiwanese man from the Diamond Princess wrote a letter to President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) asking for assistance in contacting his 85-year-old father, who had traveled with him.

Both men had been confirmed to have the coronavirus, but the son was being treated in Tokyo, while his father was at another hospital in the Kanto region, CNA reported.

The Diamond Princess had sailed from Japan down to Hong Kong and Vietnam and docked in Taiwan's Port of Keelung on Jan. 31 before returning to Yokohama via Okinawa.