Fourteen American cruise ship passengers with coronavirus among those evacuated to U.S.
14 American cruise passengers with coronavirus among 328 evacuated from Japan to the U.S.
(about 3 hours later)
Two planes carrying 328 Americans evacuated from a coronavirus-stricken cruise liner in Japan have landed in the United States, carrying 14 people confirmed to have been infected.
BEIJING — Fourteen Americans who tested positive for coronavirus were among the hundreds of U.S. citizens evacuated from a cruise ship off Japan to U.S. facilities over the holiday weekend, the result of a chaotic chain of events that put virus-stricken passengers on flights with other evacuees.
Efforts are underway to trace the passengers from a second cruise ship, docked in Cambodia, after an American passenger tested positive for the virus.
Their return almost doubles the number of confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the United States to 29. The number of confirmed infections in China now exceeds 70,000, with the death toll rising to 1,770, the majority of both in Hubei province, where the virus emerged in December.
Here are the latest developments:
In China, 200 million kids have gone back to school. Online.
● Fourteen Americans evacuated from the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan tested positive for coronavirus but were still allowed to return to the United States. More than 300 Americans were evacuated on the two flights.
The 14 U.S. passengers tested positive for the virus after disembarking the Diamond Princess, a cruise liner carrying 2,666 passengers and 1,045 crew members that had been quarantined for two weeks off the Japanese port of Yokohama.
● A sharp rise in cases in Japan has raised fears that the country is entering a “new phase” of local transmission.
But by the time their test results arrived, they were already on a fleet of buses that took 328 asymptomatic passengers from the ship to two charter planes bound for U.S. military bases in Texas and California, according to a senior U.S. official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak freely about the incident.
● Japan’s Health Ministry on Monday reported 99 new cases from passengers and crew of the Diamond Princess, increasing the total number of infections from the ship to 454.
It was a wrench in a coordinated effort. While the buses sat on the tarmac, health experts mulled whether to put the 14 on the flight or divert them to hospitals in Japan, the official said. The State Department had already told passengers that virus-infected people would not board flights.
● In China, the number of confirmed infections now exceeds 70,000, with the death toll rising to 1,770 as of Monday.
The planes included a sealed-off section of 18 seats in the back, and part of the plan was to isolate passengers there if they developed symptoms midflight, the official said.
● China’s ruling Communist Party all but confirmed that it would postpone the “Two Sessions,” the important annual political meetings scheduled for early March.
Health authorities deemed them “fit to fly” because they were not showing symptoms, the State Department and the Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement Monday. They were cordoned off from the other passengers during the flight, the statement said.
● Despite continuing fears of virus transmission, Macao’s casinos will reopen after a two-week closure.
“These individuals were moved in the most expeditious and safe manner to a specialized containment area on the evacuation aircraft to isolate them in accordance with standard protocols,” according to the statement.
BEIJING — Fourteen Americans evacuated from the coronavirus-stricken Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan tested positive for the illness but were allowed to board two chartered planes bound for quarantine on U.S. military bases.
It was unclear whether the other passengers were informed, the official said. The State Department did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
Their return almost doubles the number of confirmed cases, which had stood at 15, of the new coronavirus in the United States.
Another 44 Americans from the cruise ship tested positive for the coronavirus Sunday and had been taken to hospitals in Japan.
The 14 passengers tested positive for the virus after disembarking the cruise liner, which is moored off the Japanese port of Yokohama, but before boarding the planes. They were all asymptomatic so health authorities deemed them “fit to fly,” the State Department and the Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement Monday.
One flight unloaded bleary-eyed passengers at Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield, Calif., late Sunday night local time, and the other in Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio early Monday.
They were cordoned off from the other passengers during the flight, it said.
All are due to go into quarantine for 14 days, the maximum incubation period for the virus. Ten passengers who tested positive were moved to a hospital in Omaha upon arrival, where they are being quarantined, retested and monitored in rooms with separate filtration systems at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. Four others with the virus are in a hospital outside Travis Air Force Base and will be moved to Omaha later this week, the official said.
“These individuals were moved in the most expeditious and safe manner to a specialized containment area on the evacuation aircraft to isolate them in accordance with standard protocols,” the departments said.
Japan’s Health Ministry on Monday reported 99 new cases of coronavirus among the passengers and crew of the Diamond Princess, increasing the total number of infections from the ship to 454, including the Americans. Of those, 18 are in serious condition, the Yomiuri newspaper reported.
A total of 328 Americans were evacuated on the two flights; all are due to go into quarantine for 14 days, the maximum incubation period for the virus, at Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield, Calif., or Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio.
Yosuke Kita, a senior official in the Japanese Health Ministry, said the government would finish testing everyone on board the Diamond Princess by the end of the day Monday. One of the new cases was a Russian woman, the Russian Embassy in Tokyo said on Twitter, and two were Australians, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
Flight data showed that one flight had landed at Travis late Sunday night local time, and the other in San Antonio early Monday.
In addition to the cases on the Diamond Princess, Japan reported a sharp rise in the number of people with coronavirus over the weekend, with 65 people confirmed to have the virus, up from 33 on Thursday. The fact that many of the latest cases cannot be traced directly to China led Health Minister Katsunobu Kato to acknowledge that the virus had entered a “new phase” of local transmission.
Another 44 Americans from the cruise ship had tested positive for coronavirus and had been taken to hospitals in Japan.
Kato said Japan can now administer more than 3,000 tests a day, and designated hospitals will be able to take 1,800 of the most severe cases, “and citizens with very light symptoms will be requested to stay home,” Omi said. People who develop symptoms will be encouraged to contact special call centers, rather than visit hospitals on their own.
A senior U.S. official on Monday revealed a chaotic chain of events of sudden notifications and gut decisions to put virus-stricken passengers on flights with other evacuees. Japanese health officials administered tests days before the flights were scheduled to leave, but because of testing capacity issues, the results were received in batches, with no clear time for they would be available, according to the official familiar with the operation who declined to provide their name.
Omi said that the “goal of this strategy is to slow the speed of transmission and reduce mortality” — a de facto acknowledgment that it has now become impossible to prevent the virus from spreading further in Japan.
A fleet of buses drove hours to the airport, but on the tarmac officials received word that 14 of the 338 citizens readying to depart had tested positive for coronavirus, the senior official said, though every passenger on the buses was asymptomatic.
It was a wrench in a coordinated effort. Health experts mulled whether to put the 14 on the flight or divert them to hospitals in Japan, the official said. The State Department had told passengers that virus-infected people would not board flights.
Other experts weighed the calculus. The planes included a sealed-off section of 18 seats in the back, and part of the plan was to isolate passengers there if they developed symptoms midflight, the official said.
The State Department made the call to put all of them on the flight. But one issue was whether to disclose the new information to the rest of the passengers, the official said. At least one agency recommended the passengers should be told about the infections, but the official was not sure if they were. The State Department did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
The World Health Organization said new data has yielded better understanding of how the virus circulates and shows a decline in new cases, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a news conference Monday. But he cautioned against that as a sign the virus has reached its apex.
The World Health Organization said new data has yielded better understanding of how the virus circulates and shows a decline in new cases, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a news conference Monday. But he cautioned against that as a sign the virus has reached its apex.
“Trends can change as new populations are affected. It’s too early to tell if this reported decline will continue,” he said. “Every scenario is still on the table.”
“Trends can change as new populations are affected. It’s too early to tell if this reported decline will continue,” he said. “Every scenario is still on the table.”
There are still puzzling unknowns, such as why children make up relatively few cases, though researchers are confident that coronavirus is less deadly than SARS and MERS viruses.
Government officials in Malaysia, Cambodia and the United States were scrambling on Monday to track down passengers from another cruise ship — the Westerdam, owned by Holland America Line — who may have been exposed to coronavirus.
The global quarantine turned one Russian woman into a social media celebrity after she detailed her escape from a St. Petersburg hospital on Instagram.
Hundreds of passengers have flown home, mostly through Thailand or Malaysia, after the ship docked in the Cambodian port of Sihanoukville and health authorities there deemed it coronavirus-free.
A Russian court on Monday ordered Alla llyina back to the hospital after she disabled an electronic lock in her room and fled on Feb. 7, a day after her sore throat and recent travel landed her in quarantine, the Associated Press reported.
But an 83-year-old American woman who disembarked from the ship at Sihanoukville on Friday took a charter flight to Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia, along with 145 other passengers. They had all passed health checks by Cambodian authorities and cleared to leave the ship and travel onward.
“Wild,” Ilyina wrote after she was forced to stay at the hospital the first time. “All three tests showed I was completely healthy, so why the hell the quarantine?”
Her digital defiance embarrassed Russian officials, the AP reported, triggering the compulsory hospitalization.
At least three others fled the hospital and one woman, Anna Rybakova, remains at large, the AP reported.
Japan’s Health Ministry on Monday reported 99 new cases of coronavirus among the passengers and crew of the Diamond Princess, increasing the total number of infections from the ship to 454. Of those, 18 are in serious condition, the Yomiuri newspaper reported.
Yosuke Kita, a senior official in the Japanese Health Ministry, said the government will have finished testing everyone on board the Diamond Princess by the end of the day on Monday.
One of the new cases was a Russian woman, who would be taken to hospital for treatment, the Russian Embassy in Tokyo said on Twitter, and two were Australians, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
The Australian government said it would evacuate more than 200 of its citizens stranded onboard the Diamond Princess on a charter flight that will depart from Japan on Wednesday. They will all have to spend two weeks in quarantine in the northern city of Darwin.
“I understand that those who were on board will feel very frustrated about this,” Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Monday. “But our first responsibility is that we have to protect the health and safety of Australians in Australia today.”
The Australian plane would also carry out the 11 New Zealanders stranded on the cruise ship, said New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, and they would have to go into quarantine once home.
With Monday’s new cases, a total of 26 Australians and two New Zealanders have been confirmed as having the virus.
44 Americans on cruise ship docked in Japan tested positive for coronavirus, U.S. health official says
The evacuations were underway amid a continuing scramble to contain the virus, especially in China, where the outbreak began in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province, in December.
The number of confirmed infections in China now exceeds 70,000, with the death toll rising to 1,770, the overwhelming majority of both in Hubei province. But China’s National Health Commission has stressed that the number of new cases outside Hubei province has been declining, as authorities impose draconian restrictions on people’s movements in an attempt to stop transmission.
Another cruise liner, the Westerdam, owned by Holland America Line, is at the center of a coronavirus-related investigation.
Hundreds of passengers have flown home, mostly through Thailand or Malaysia, after the ship docked in the Cambodian port of Sihanoukville and Cambodian health authorities deemed it coronavirus-free.
But an American woman has since tested positive for the virus, setting off a scramble to trace the infection.
Holland America Line said Monday that it was working closely with government and health officials in Malaysia and Cambodia, as well as experts from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization, to try to trace people who may have been exposed to the virus.
As U.S. plans evacuations for American travelers on cruise ship in Japan, a passenger from another ship turns up with coronavirus
An 83-year-old American woman who disembarked from the ship at Sihanoukville on Friday took a charter flight to Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia, along with 145 other passengers. They had all passed health checks by Cambodian authorities and cleared to leave the ship and travel onward.
When the woman arrived in Kuala Lumpur, she reported not feeling well and tested positive for the virus. Malaysian authorities say she is in stable condition.
When the woman arrived in Kuala Lumpur, she reported not feeling well and tested positive for the virus. Malaysian authorities say she is in stable condition.
Her traveling companion tested negative, and none of the other passengers or crew members reported symptoms, the company said in the statement.
Her traveling companion tested negative, and none of the other passengers or crew members reported symptoms, Holland America Line said in the statement.
The Westerdam on Monday remained in Sihanoukville, where it had docked last week after spending two weeks at sea. Authorities in Japan, Taiwan, Guam, the Philippines and Thailand had turned it away after seeing what had happened with the Diamond Princess, where the number of infections had grown rapidly even while the vessel and its passengers were supposed to be quarantined.
The Westerdam on Monday remained in Sihanoukville, where it had docked last week after spending two weeks at sea. Authorities in Japan, Taiwan, Guam, the Philippines and Thailand had turned it away after seeing what happened with the Diamond Princess, where the number of infections grew rapidly even while the vessel and its passengers quarantined.
Cambodia’s strongman prime minister, Hun Sen, who has vowed not to do anything to anger China and even wanted to visit Wuhan, said his country would take the ship, which had been deemed virus-free.
44 Americans on cruise ship docked in Japan tested positive for coronavirus, U.S. health official says
The U.S. ambassador to Cambodia, W. Patrick Murphy, visited the cruise ship while it was in port and posted photos on Twitter of him and his family with American passengers.
The new cases come amid a continuing scramble to contain the virus in China, especially in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province, where the outbreak began.
President Trump tweeted on Saturday: “Thank you to the beautiful country of Cambodia for accepting the @CarnivalCruise ship Westerdam into your port. The United States will remember your courtesy!”
China’s National Health Commission said over the weekend that the number of new cases outside Hubei province has declined, as authorities impose severe restrictions on people’s movements in an attempt to stop transmission.
Amid concerns over widening clusters of outbreaks outside of China and a possible new stage in transmission patterns, Japan and South Korea changed their approaches to confronting the virus on Monday.
In Beijing, China’s ruling Communist Party signaled that it would almost certainly postpone the annual meeting of its legislature, the National People’s Congress and the other national committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. Together, these meetings are known as the “Two Sessions.”
Japan reported a sharp rise in the number of people with coronavirus over the weekend, with 65 people now confirmed to have the virus, up from 33 on Thursday. The fact that many of the latest cases cannot be traced directly to China forced Health Minister Katsunobu Kato to acknowledge that the virus has entered a “new phase” of local transmission.
The country had initially employed a “quarantine-based” approach, for instance restricting entry to people who had recently been in Wuhan, said Shigeru Omi, chief director with the Japan Community Health Care Organization, which runs medical centers across Japan. But now the country is shifting to an approach focused on community-based control and treatment, he said.
One aspect of this was a “highly sensitive surveillance system … to allow prompt detection of cases.” Health Minister Kato said Japan can now administer more than 3,000 tests a day.
Designated hospitals will be able to take 1,800 of the most severe cases, while other hospitals will be able to take milder cases, “and citizens with very light symptoms will be requested to stay home,” Omi said. People who develop symptoms will be encouraged to contact special call centers, rather than visit hospitals on their own.
Omi said that the “goal of this strategy is to slow the speed of transmission and reduce mortality” — a de facto acknowledgment that it has now become impossible to prevent the virus from spreading further in Japan.
“My gut feeling is we can avoid a situation such as Wuhan,” he said. “Some transmission is inevitable, but the case fatality rate will not be as high as Wuhan and Hubei.”
As the country was bracing for more infections, Japan’s Imperial Household Agency canceled a birthday event for Emperor Naruhito at the Imperial Palace scheduled for Sunday. The organizers of the Tokyo Marathon said they would only allow elite racers to compete at the event on March 1, preventing tens of thousands of people from being able to participate. The event doubles as a qualifier for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Apart from Japan, South Korea similarly stepped up its efforts to confront the outbreak on Monday. The country will start testing individuals for the coronavirus if they have been identified by doctors as having pneumonia-like symptoms linked to the virus, even if they have not recently traveled abroad.
The announcement came as South Korean health officials were still attempting to trace the origins of a new infection, first reported on Sunday.
In Beijing, China’s ruling Communist Party signaled that it would almost certainly postpone the annual meeting of its legislature, the National People’s Congress and the other national committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. Together, these meetings are known as the “Two Sessions” and have opened on March 5 every year since 1995, except for 1997 when the meetings convened on March 1.
Officials from the NPC standing committee will meet Feb. 24 to discuss postponing the meetings, the official Xinhua News Agency said on Monday.
At the meetings, Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang take to the stage in the Great Hall of the People on the western edge of Tiananmen Square and lay out their vision for the year ahead. Some 3,000 delegates from around the country attend.
The move to delay it “underscores the gravity of the coronavirus epidemic,” according to the analysts at the NPC Observer blog. “Officially, the Council is reported to have been mainly concerned with pulling NPC delegates (over a third of whom are local officials) away from their epidemic control efforts,” the analysts said in a blog post, linking to a state media article.
The move to delay it “underscores the gravity of the coronavirus epidemic,” according to the analysts at the NPC Observer blog. “Officially, the Council is reported to have been mainly concerned with pulling NPC delegates (over a third of whom are local officials) away from their epidemic control efforts,” the analysts said in a blog post, linking to a state media article.
Other analysts point out that it would be bad optics for the party to hold a huge meeting when all public gatherings are banned, and even worse to show thousands of cadres in masks. The party’s leaders are already being criticized for their slow response to the outbreak and apparent efforts to silence those who warned about it.
Other analysts point out that it would be bad optics for the party to hold a huge meeting when all public gatherings are banned, and even worse to show thousands of cadres in masks. The party’s leaders already have faced criticism for their response to the outbreak.
Also on Feb. 24, the NPC standing committee will vote on restricting the sale of, and banning the consumption of, wild animals. The coronavirus outbreak began in a food market in Wuhan where exotic animals, including snakes and hedgehogs, were on sale. The virus is thought to have mutated and jumped from the animals to humans.
Horton and Bhattarai reported from Washington. Simon Denyer in Yokohama, Japan, Min Joo Kim in Seoul, Shibani Mahtani in Hong Kong and Rick Noack in Berlin contributed to this report.
The semiautonomous Chinese territory of Macao is now set to reopen its casinos on Thursday, capping a 15-day closure that has been aimed at stemming the coronavirus outbreak from spreading further in the city of 670,000 — even as the government continues to urge people not to congregate.
Macao earns billions in tax revenue from its casinos, and tourism more broadly accounts for 80 percent of its economic output.
The move was an unexpected one, however, as most analysts believed the shutdown in the world’s largest gambling hub would be extended as cases continue to spike in mainland China.
Analysts said the decision could have been prompted by Chinese leader Xi’s desire for the coronavirus not to hinder China’s overall progress and its economy. He has warned against “overreactions” to the outbreak.
Simon Denyer in Yokohama, Japan, Min Joo Kim in Seoul, Shibani Mahtani in Hong Kong and Rick Noack in Berlin contributed to this report. Horton reported from Washington.
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