Thousands of passengers stuck on cruise ships amid coronavirus quarantines

Some 7,000 people are trapped on two massive cruise ships in Asia amid rapidly spreading concerns about the coronavirus.

The docked ships are in Hong Kong and Japan. The ship quarantined in Yokohama harbor has at least 41 cases of coronavirus on board, according to Japanese authorities.

Before Friday's 41 confirmed cases, 20 infected passengers were escorted off the Diamond Princess at Yokohama near Tokyo. About 3,700 people have been confined aboard the ship.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced Thursday that Japan will deny entry of foreign passengers on another cruise ship heading to Japan - Holland America's cruise ship Westerdam, on its way to Okinawa from Hong Kong - because of suspected virus patients found on the ship.

"The only interaction we have is with the staff and the staff is wearing masks and gloves," a passenger on the ship told ABC News.

Worries are growing as some passengers are running low on medication.

The ship docked in Hong Kong also has several thousand passengers, including more than 400 Americans.

In China, the death toll has grown to more than 600, including one of the first doctors to sound the alarm about the outbreak.

In the United States hundreds of Americans have been arriving from Wuhan on State Department-chartered flights and are now under 14-day quarantine on U.S. military bases.

Frank Wucinski and his 3-year-old daughter arrived this week and say they are feeling fine - but they're hospitalized because they were sick in Wuhan.

"We'll probably be stuck in the hospital for the next three days until the CDC results come back," he said.

Frank's wife is back in Wuhan where she is now caring for her father who is sick with the potentially deadly virus.

The Associated Press and ABC News contributed to this report.