The 500 passengers on the Diamond Princess yacht were leaving today after test results showed they were negative for corona virus.

"I am relieved. I want to relax," the 77-year-old Japanese passenger said as he left the Diamond Princess yacht in a quarantine at Yokoham port, refusing to name. He said he would go home by rail.

Buses and taxis line up to take passengers out of the port, many of whom pull luggage behind. A few passengers waved as they parted ways with the rest of the train, some standing on the balcony, waving to those who were to leave.

Diamond Princess recorded at least 542 cases positive for the corona virus, making the yacht the largest outbreak outside of China. For the 500 passengers allowed to leave the ship after the negative test, the difficult 14-day isolation period ended after the dream journey turned into a nightmare of fear.

"Negative. I, my son, my husband and my parents are all negative. Thank God for protecting us. It is very moving," said passenger Yardley Wong.

Those who are asymptomatic and test negative all receive a certificate stating that they "are not at risk of nCoV infection" and that there are no symptoms, including fever, at the time the disease spread. Diamond Princess's crew will start a new quarantine after the last passengers leave.

However not everyone is so lucky. British passenger David Abel, who drew attention to the optimistic messages in the early days of the quarantined yacht, expressed moodiness.

"To be honest, the situation is very bad. Now it's hard to focus on anything," Abel said, adding that both he and his wife Sally were positive for the virus.

Many Japanese are concerned about the authorities allowing passengers to leave the yacht to board a plane home or into the capital Tokyo. Kentaro Iwata, a professor at Kobe University's Department of Infectious Diseases, said that the quarantine on board was "a major failure, a mistake", concerned that a secondary infection could occur.

Meanwhile, the people of Yokohama supported the decision to allow passengers to go out, despite the fear of disease. "I am sure the people on board were very worried. I hope they can soon return to normal life," Isamu Habiro, 51, said. "As a resident of Yokohama, I don't want them to be treated unfairly. I want to encourage them."

The yacht carrying 3,711 passengers and crew members were quarantined at the Port of Yokohama from February 4 after a Hong Kong tourist last month was positive for nCoV. The US has evacuated more than 300 citizens from the yacht, while the UK, Hong Kong and Australia have similar plans. Those who are evacuated will continue to be isolated for 14 days after returning home.

The Covid-19 epidemic has so far killed 2,010 people and 75,184 people infected, mainly in the center of Hubei, China. Six deaths were recorded outside mainland China in Japan, Hong Kong, France, the Philippines and Taiwan.