Japanese health authorities say that six more passengers on board a cruise ship off Japan are found to have been infected with the novel coronavirus, bringing the ship's total to 70.

According to Japan's Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare on Sunday, six more people on the Diamond Princess tested positive for the contagious virus. 

There were more than 37-hundred passengers and crew on the ship when it arrived off Yokohama last week.

Japanese authorities tested 279 people on board the quarantined cruise ship who displayed symptoms or had come into contact with a previous passenger diagnosed with the virus.