Lately, there have been many reports of cruise ships being held at ports for fear of the rapidly spreading Covid-19.

One such ship off the coast of Japan has been held for ten days because 170 people have been confirmed with the virus.

Stuck in a predicament

More than 3,500 passengers and crew members have been on lockdown in the ship, and they have been getting restless, tweeting mixed reviews of the room-service food and alerting the local media about the lack of medicine on board.

To solve this problem, the Japanese government gave them a little surprise.

According to Business Insider, Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare and the Japanese telecom company SoftBank distributed 2,000 iPhones, one per cabin, for those on the ship.

今回、#ダイヤモンドプリンセス号 の乗客の皆様へ、厚労省、SB社、LINE社の連携の下、LINEを入れたiPhoneを2000台をご提供させていただきました

LINE経由での乗客への情報を提供を実現し、さらに心理カウンセラー、医師へのオンライン相談が可能となりました

※写真は有志たち#新型コロナウィルス pic.twitter.com/o9n8o9WSix

— 舛田 淳（Masuda Jun）／LINE (@masujun) February 14, 2020

An extremely useful surprise

All the phones come with a pre-downloaded app that allows people to request for medication, arrange consultations with doctors, and receive information from health officials.

We know what you're thinking, why didn't they just tell the passengers to download the app on their existing phones kan?


Well, apparently there were issues relating to the registration for devices purchased from countries other than Japan.

So, the solution? An iPhone for you, an iPhone for you, and (you guessed it) an iPhone for you!

Now, they have a direct channel to voice their grievances.