Wilkes-Barre native reportedly contracts coronavirus on cruise ship in Japan

A Wilkes-Barre native is on life support in Japan after contracting the coronavirus while on vacation, according to WNEP, an ABC affiliate in Luzerne County.

Dan Fisher, who graduated from Coughlin High School in 1975, was on vacation in Japan earlier this month when he fell ill, Fisher’s childhood friend, Fred Nicholas, told the TV station.

Nicholas said Fisher left the area after high school but they’ve kept in touch in recent years through social media. He said Fisher told him Feb. 3 that he was being tested for the coronavirus but hasn’t heard from him since.

Fisher was aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship, according to a comment he made on a Facebook page listed as belonging to him.

He wrote on Feb. 3 that he was in Tokyo and “now we have a case of coronavirus on the Diamond Princess cruise ship, not sure what the authorities are going to do, but all precautions are being taken.”

He wrote the next day that it “looks like continued quarantine aboard the Diamond Princess, glad it’s on the ship and not the airport, we are now instructed to stay in our room.”

Princess Cruise Lines confirmed Feb. 4 that 10 passengers tested positive for the virus. The testing came after a passenger who had disembarked in late January had been diagnosed. The ship, at that point, was to remain under quarantine for 14 days.

On Feb. 7, Fisher wrote that a doctor and nurse came to their room and tested him for the virus. He last posted to Facebook on Feb. 10, noting that there were 66 more cases of the virus on the ship.

The cruise line announced Feb. 12 that guests could voluntarily disembark to finish out their quarantine period at a medical facility. Officials said those on board who tested positive would leave first and be transported to a hospital for treatment.

The United States early last week evacuated about 300 Americans who had been on the ship and placed them in quarantine, according to the CDC. Another 100 remained on the ship or in Japanese hospitals.

Six people infected aboard the ship have died, the most recent being a British man who died on Friday, according to the New York Post.

Nicholas told WNEP that a mutual friend told him Fisher and his wife tested positive for the virus and Fisher was on life support.

“I was shocked,” Nicholas told the station.

“I’m saying prayers,” he continued. “I’m hoping he’s going to pull through this. It’s just very, very tragic.”