Coronavirus Live Updates: Sixty-One People on Cruise Ship Off Japan Have Virus


Coronavirus Live Updates: Sixty-One People on Cruise Ship Off Japan Have Virus

Japanese officials said on Friday that 61 people had tested positive for the coronavirus on a quarantined cruise ship in Yokohama, a steep increase from the 20 confirmed cases on Thursday.

Officials have screened 273 passengers they said were potentially exposed to the virus. The 41 new patients were to be taken off the ship for medical treatment.

More than 2,000 passengers on the Diamond Princess ship have been stuck inside their cabins for days as part of a two-week quarantine. Meals have been irregular, and only on Thursday were small groups finally permitted to go outside and breathe some fresh air.

“I keep hearing painful coughs from a foreigner in a nearby room,” one passenger wrote on Twitter on Thursday, noting with concern that crew members were delivering meals from room to room. “I might get infected today or tomorrow.”

Other passengers who have been whiling away some of the time on social media told of more hopeful signs. One noted that supplies were being moved into the port and that ambulances were in position. Another said that entertainment crews had been visiting guest rooms to cheer people up, and that toilet paper had been distributed.

Of the 41 new cases, 21 were Japanese, Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare said. None of those 41 passengers were in serious condition as of Friday morning.

Separately, a cruise ship with 3,600 people on board remains stranded in Hong Kong. Yu Li, a mother of two infants on the World Dream cruise, said the most difficult part was a lack of clarity from the local authorities about where passengers would be quarantined.

“Most passengers are willing to be isolated whether or not they have symptoms,” she said in an interview. “I hope the government can give us a reply as soon as possible and tell us whether it would take place at home, or on the cruise, or in designated quarantine centers.”

Families with young children are mostly bunkered in their rooms and watching movies that the cruise ship company has distributed to help alleviate boredom, Ms. Li said. Older passengers, she said, were less willing to be confined to their rooms, choosing to play mahjong in communal spaces.

China’s leader, Xi Jinping, spoke by telephone with President Trump on Friday morning to discuss the coronavirus epidemic, telling him that the government had spared no effort in what he called “a people’s war,” according to CCTV, the state television network.

In the official account of the conversation, Mr. Xi made no reference to Chinese grievances over the Trump administration’s response to the epidemic, including being the first foreign government to close its consulate in Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak, and order the evacuation of diplomats.

Mr. Xi offered no words of thanks, a stark contrast to messages of gratitude the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been posting for other nations, including Italy, Poland, the Maldives and Pakistan.

Mr. Xi told Mr. Trump that Beijing’s efforts to control the outbreak were “gradually achieving results.”

“We are fully confident and capable of defeating the epidemic,” he said, according to CCTV.

A week ago, the Trump administration announced it would bar entry to any foreign citizens who had traveled to China during the last 14 days, saying the coronavirus constituted a public health emergency even though the United States had relatively few cases. It now has 12 confirmed infections.

A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Hua Chunying, sharply criticized that decision earlier this week, accusing the United States of spreading panic and not doing anything to support China’s fight against the outbreak.

  • Updated Feb. 5, 2020

    • Where has the virus spread?
      You can track its movement with this map.
    • How is the United States being affected?
      There have been at least a dozen cases. American citizens and permanent residents who fly to the United States from China are now subject to a two-week quarantine.
    • What if I’m traveling?
      Several countries, including the United States, have discouraged travel to China, and several airlines have canceled flights. Many travelers have been left in limbo while looking to change or cancel bookings.
    • How do I keep myself and others safe?
      Washing your hands is the most important thing you can do.

The death toll and the number of infections continued to soar in China, according to official data released early Friday.

Nationwide, more than 70 new deaths and 3,100 new cases emerged in the previous 24 hours, the national health authorities said.

The new figures brought the total number of deaths in China to at least 636. And the total number of confirmed cases rose to 31,161.

Sixty-nine of the newly reported deaths occurred in Hubei Province, the heart of the outbreak, the authorities said, but there were also four deaths outside of the province: one each in Jilin, Henan, Guangdong and Hainan Provinces.

So far, the vast majority of confirmed deaths have been in Hubei, though deaths have also been reported in other Chinese provinces, Hong Kong and the Philippines. More than 200 infections have been reported outside of China.

Many doctors believe that deaths and infections in China are undercounted because hospitals and laboratories are under severe strain to test for the virus. Local officials in Hubei Province, the center of the outbreak, have called on health care workers to speed up the process.

Many sick residents in Hubei also say that they have been turned away by overstretched hospitals, which lack test kits and beds.

In Angers, France, a company owned by the medical supply company Kolmi Hopen makes 170 million medical face masks a year. It isn’t enough.

There are currently no approved treatments for illnesses caused by coronaviruses. But as the outbreak shows little sign of abating, China is forging ahead with attempts to find one.

A second large planeload of Australian citizens and permanent residents will be evacuated from Wuhan, and this time they will be quarantined at a vacant mining village in Australia’s Northern Territory, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Friday.

About 270 Australians who were evacuated from Wuhan on Monday are currently being housed in a former immigration center on Christmas Island, 2,000 miles west of Australia’s mainland.

But with that center at capacity, the government is now preparing the village of Manigurr-ma, near the northern city of Darwin, to house the new planeload of evacuees. The village was formerly used by Inpex, an oil and gas corporation, to house construction workers, and it has a gym, a dining hall and a swimming pool.

The village will be declared an isolation zone and be ready to receive about 280 people on Saturday, when the evacuees’ plane is due to land in Darwin, the Northern Territory government said. None of the evacuees have symptoms of the coronavirus, officials said.

Chinese leaders are seeking to reassure the public that the economic devastation of the coronavirus will be short-lived and controlled. But they are taking steps to weather extended factory shutdowns and store closures.

The deputy governor of the People’s Bank of China, Pan Gongsheng, said on Friday that controlling the virus was a “top priority.” This week, the central bank pumped some $175 billion into the financial system, and the government has issued a flurry of financial aid measures at the local level.

It is the world’s fourth-most-populous country, and it is a popular destination for Chinese tourists, including from Wuhan. But Indonesia still has no confirmed cases of the coronavirus, officials there insist.

On Thursday, the health ministry’s director for communicable diseases, said that none of the 243 people evacuated to Indonesia from Wuhan — 238 students and five officials from the Indonesian consulate there — showed signs of illness after being screened and quarantined. And he said until they showed symptoms, there was no need for full testing.




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