Tokyo, Feb 20 (IANS): Two people who were on board a cruise ship quarantined in Japan earlier this month and had contracted the novel coronavirus, have died, state media reported Thursday, taking the overall toll in the country to three.

The two passengers aboard the Diamond Princess were a man and a woman in their 80s who contracted COVID-19, Efe news quoted public broadcaster NHK as saying in a report.

Their identities were not revealed, though they said both were Japanese.

The two victis had been admitted to hospital after testing positive. One was evacuated on February 11 from the ship and the other the next day.

The cruise was quarantined on February 3 in the Japanese port of Yokohama with 3,700 people on board, but it had since been discovered that about 600 passengers or crew had been infected with the coronavirus.

One other person had died in Japan on February 13 due to COVID-19 in Kanagawa prefecture, south of Tokyo.

According to the last official balance, 621 people aboard the Diamond Princess contracted the virus through a passenger who disembarked in Hong Kong before arriving in Japan.

Medical teams performed 3,011 tests on the cruise until Wednesday.

Outside the cruise, approximately 80 people in Japan have tested positive.

Hundreds left the cruise on Wednesday at the end of the quarantine period set by authorities, and the rest were expected to do so between Thursday and Friday.