A third passenger died after having fallen ill aboard the COVID-19 sticken Diamond Princess off the coast of Japan.

The health ministry announced that he was an 80-year-old Japanese man passenger, and that he died of pneumonia.

The passenger showed symptoms of the virus, but the ministry did not confirm if he had tested positive.

As per the ministry, they can only divulge the information to the public if the family had given their consent to do so.

He was immediately removed from the Diamond Princess and taken to a local hospital.

Two other Diamond Princess passengers, an 87-year-old man and an 84-year-old woman who are both Japanese died previously.

The first two passengers each tested positive as soon as they were sent to the hospital on February 11 and 12 respectively.

The ministry believes that both of them had been infected before the ship was placed under quarantine.

The Diamond Princess now has 634 confirmed cases of COVID-19 as of Friday despite of the quarantine, and 36 of those are in critical condition.

This makes it the most number of cases at any site outside China.

So far, Japan had recorded four deaths associated with the dreaded virus, and infected more than 130 people, not counting those from the Diamond Princess.

Japanese health minister Katsunobu Kato announced that the government has to be stricter on who were allowed to leave the ship, after a passenger who previously tested negative later developed symptoms.

According to Kyodo News, one of the measures includes making daily phone calls to those who have disembarked from the Diamond Princess.

The evacuees were also asked to always wear masks when coming into contact with others, and to avoid using public transportation.