This article is from the source 'washpo' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/coronavirus-china-live-updates/2020/02/19/3286b6d2-529d-11ea-b119-4faabac6674f_story.html

The article has changed 114 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 108 Version 109
Coronavirus cases spike in Italy, China says most new infections limited to Hubei, South Korea declares ‘red alert’ New developments suggest coronavirus incubation could be longer than 14 days, as global infections rise
(32 minutes later)
The latest novel coronavirus figures from China suggest that the outbreak remains worst in locked-down Hubei province, where 630 new cases and 96 more deaths were reported Saturday evening. There are some indications that the incubation period for the coronavirus could be longer than 14 days, with patients testing positive after much longer quarantine periods, researchers said. The rush to understand the virus came as infections rose in South Korea, Japan, Iran and Italy. The head of the World Health Organization warned that the window for stopping the epidemic was narrowing. Here’s what we know:
Outside China, the outbreak continued to spread. South Korea said Sunday that it was raising its national threat level to “red alert,” the highest level, after 169 new cases were confirmed Sunday; in Italy, the number of cases spiked to 152, the largest number outside Asia. ● Chinese leader Xi Jinping has been advised that the situation in Wuhan “remains grim and complex.” Amid an alarming surge in cases with no clear link to China, infectious disease experts say they believe the flu-like illness may soon be a pandemic and impossible to contain.
●The Italian government said it has 152 confirmed cases, up from three in a matter of days. Authorities have locked down roughly a dozen small towns and canceled events across the north, including Venice’s Carnival. ● South Korea and Japan both reported a sharp spike in cases, with the number of cases in South Korea rising to at least 556. A sixth person died in Iran from the virus, while Italy has at least 76 confirmed cases, making it the largest hot spot in Europe.
●The Chinese government reported 648 new cases across the country on Sunday and 97 deaths, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 76,936, with 2,442 deaths. ● Nine South Korean tourists who recently toured Israel and the occupied West Bank tested positive for coronavirus Saturday. Israeli and Palestinian authorities are urging anyone who may have come in contact with them to report and self-isolate.
●Three cruise ships have docked in Wuhan, Hubei’s capital, to house medical workers to help the city’s overburdened health-care system. On Sunday, Wuhan’s Union Jiangbei Hospital announced that a 29-year-old doctor had died of coronavirus, the second death of a young doctor in Hubei in recent days. ● China on Sunday local time reported 648 new cases and 97 additional deaths. There continues to be a great deal of skepticism about China’s numbers as the criteria for diagnosing coronavirus keep changing.
● A third passenger who had been aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship has died, according to Japan’s Health Ministry. ● Thousands of Russian-linked social-media accounts are leading a disinformation campaign to cause alarm about the outbreak, the AFP reported.
● South Korea raised its national threat level to “red alert” after cases spiked to 602, the first time the country has used the highest setting since the H1N1 swine flu outbreak in 2009. BEIJING — Scientists were studying a case in China that suggested the incubation period for coronavirus could be longer than 14 days, potentially casting doubt on current quarantine criteria even as the epidemic moved into new regions.
● Iran has confirmed eight deaths related to the coronavirus, the most outside of China, media reported Sunday. South Korea confirmed its fifth and sixth deaths. The potential for a longer incubation period was linked to a patient in China’s Hubei Province, where the virus was first detected in December. A 70-year-old man was infected with coronavirus, but did not show symptoms until 27 days later, the local government reported.
HONG KONG — Coronavirus outbreaks in South Korea and Italy continued to expand rapidly on Sunday as both countries reported a slew of new cases and Italian authorities raced to seal off hot spot towns. South Korea and Japan both reported a sharp spike in cases Saturday, while an additional 97 people died of the virus in China, and a sixth person died in Iran. Italian authorities Saturday said the country was seeing a sudden rise in coronavirus cases, with at least 58 confirmed in the past two days — an outbreak that represents the largest across Europe.
While the latest Chinese figures showed new cases largely concentrated in Hubei, concern was growing about the virus in other parts of the world, including in Europe, which had yet to see a large-scale outbreak until now, and where containment efforts could test the continent's open-border ideals. Meanwhile, scientists in China reported indications that the virus might be transmissible through urine.
South Korea reported a significant rise in cases on Sunday, with 169 new cases bringing the total to 602 and two more deaths for a total of six. Italy said the number of confirmed cases had reached 152, up from three in a matter of days. Almost 78,000 people worldwide have been diagnosed with the coronavirus, with the vast majority of cases located in mainland China, according to the World Health Organization. Roughly 1,400 cases have been tallied outside China.
The sudden outbreak in Italy caught authorities there off guard, while triggering severe interruptions of the sort that have upended life in China. Universities across northern Italy, where the outbreak is concentrated, are shuttered; major soccer matches have been canceled. Venice's famed Carnival, which can draw more than 100,000 people daily, was suspended two days before its scheduled end. WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Saturday that WHO experts were due to arrive that day in Wuhan, China, the center of the coronavirus outbreak. The team has visited three Chinese provinces this week, Tedros said in a speech in Geneva.
In the mostly smaller towns where the virus has been detected, checkpoints have been set up designed to prevent most people from entering or leaving. Outside China, Tedros said that the WHO is concerned about the number of cases without a clear epidemiological link, such as recent travel to China or contact with a person known to be infected.
"We've already ordered police forces and law enforcement agencies to comply," Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said. "If necessary there will be armed forces too." The organization also has been sending medical supplies to Africa and training the continent’s health-care workers to prepare them for the virus’s possible arrival there, Tedros said. The only confirmed case of the coronavirus in Africa is in Egypt.
But authorities admitted they were seeing cases, including two in Venice, that had no apparent connection to Chinese travelers or the closed-off Italian hot spots, which are mostly concentrated toward the south of Milan. “Our biggest concern continues to be the potential for covid-19 to spread in countries with weaker health systems,” Tedros said.
A broader outbreak would be particularly complicated in Europe, where countries maintain open borders. Conte said changing that policy would be "draconian" and could be devastating for the Italian economy, which is among the weakest on the continent. South Korea coronavirus cases surge as Italy confirms first death from the virus
The Chinese government announced there had been 648 more confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus outbreak as of late Saturday evening, bringing the total in mainland China to 76,936, with 97 more deaths from the outbreak bringing the total up to 2,442 across the nation. Chinese leader Xi Jinping, who has not visited Wuhan since the outbreak began, was briefed that the situation in the city and in surrounding Hubei province “remains grim and complex,” according to a report by the official Xinhua News Agency published Saturday.
Within China, the outbreak remains worst in Hubei province and its capital, Wuhan, where the outbreak first emerged in December. The new official figures showed that the vast majority of new cases confirmed across China — 630 — were in the province, as were all but one of the new deaths. “The nationwide inflection point of the epidemic has not yet arrived,” the report said after a meeting of Communist Party leaders.
Hubei has been under lockdown since Jan. 23, an unprecedented organizational response to a health crisis. As of Sunday, three cruise ships had arrived in Wuhan to house medical workers for the city’s stretched health-care system, drawing mixed reactions from Chinese Internet users. China’s National Health Commission reported Sunday local time that 648 new cases of coronavirus were diagnosed Saturday, taking the total to nearly 77,000. The rate of infection outside Hubei appears to have slowed markedly, although there has been a great deal of confusion about the statistics this week as officials have repeatedly changed the criteria for confirming cases.
Japan’s NHK reported the same day that cases had risen to 135 — not including the cases linked to the Diamond Princess, where at least 650 people who traveled aboard the ship are now confirmed cases. Authorities discovered Friday that a 70-year-old man in Hubei was confirmed as infected after 27 days in isolation, while a man in Jiangxi province tested positive after 14 days of centralized quarantine and five days of isolation at home. On Thursday, authorities reported that a man in Hubei had tested positive for coronavirus after what appeared to be a 38-day incubation period with no symptoms.
The Diamond Princess outbreak alone has had a global impact. At least 18 Americans and seven Australians have tested positive for the virus after returning to their home countries, and medical authorities in both countries say they expect to find more cases as more tests are carried out. The United States is also struggling with domestic fallout from its responses to the virus. The Californian city of Costa Mesta has sued the federal government over its plan to transfer quarantined coronavirus patients from the Travis Air Force Base near Sacramento to the former Fairview Developmental Center as early as this weekend. The city said that the area in question is surrounded by residential neighborhoods and that placing patients with a highly contagious disease so close by could pose a risk to public health.
Twelve Indian crew members have so far been confirmed as cases aboard the ship, India’s NDTV reported on Sunday. A federal judge granted Costa Mesa’s request Friday, temporarily blocking the transfer of up to 50 patients. The restraining order prohibits state and federal government authorities from transporting anyone infected with coronavirus or who has been exposed to the disease to Costa Mesa before a hearing at 2 p.m. Monday at the Santa Ana federal courthouse, according to the Los Angeles Times.
With some new indications that the coronavirus may have a longer incubation period than 14 days and a variety of cases with no clear link to Hubei, as well as lingering worries about China’s counting methods, health officials remain concerned about the risk of a global pandemic. The State Department, meanwhile, is battling thousands of Russian-linked social-media accounts promoting baseless theories that the United States created the coronavirus outbreak, according to the AFP. The accounts post “almost near identical” messages at similar times in five languages, the report says.
The large number of new cases confirmed in Hubei continue to present challenges for the province, which has now been on lockdown for almost a month. U.S. officials said they discovered the disinformation campaign in mid-January.
On Sunday, Wuhan’s Union Jiangbei Hospital announced that a 29-year-old Xia Sisi, a front line doctor from the department of gastroenterology had died of coronavirus early on Sunday morning. Xia had been hospitalized on Jan. 19, the hospital said. “Russia’s intent is to sow discord and undermine U.S. institutions and alliances from within, including through covert and coercive malign influence campaigns,” Philip Reeker, the acting assistant secretary of state for Europe and Eurasia, told the AFP.
The toll on health workers in Hubei has been heavy. China Daily reports that another 29-year-old doctor in Wuhan, Peng Yinhua, died on Thursday after postponing his own wedding to help treat the outbreak. Misinformation about the coronavirus outbreak has proliferated — mostly on social media — since the first cases were reported in December.
China is bringing in seven cruise ships to help house medical workers for the coronavirus response, with the first, named Blue Whale, arriving on Friday evening followed by Changjiang Fu Tai and Changjiang Fu Tai No. 2 on Saturday. The State Department on Saturday heightened its travel advisories from Level 1 to Level 2 for South Korea and Japan, urging Americans to “exercise increased caution” when traveling to those countries due to the rising number of coronavirus cases there. Older adults and people with chronic conditions, who might be at higher risk of contracting the virus, should consider postponing unnecessary travel to those countries, the department said.
In total, the ships will provide 1,267 beds for health workers, according to local media reports, and China has taken extensive efforts to provide a safe environment, including having a dedicated ship to dispose of waste. But on Chinese social media, opinions were split about the idea, with some comparing it to the situation aboard the Diamond Princess. The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) reported Sunday that 123 additional cases of the coronavirus had been detected, taking the total to 556. This makes it the worst-affected country outside China.
On Weibo, some users suggested that air-conditioning in the ships would need to be sealed and the plumbing inspected. “If I were a doctor, I would set up a tent by myself,” one user wrote. “Apart from the Diamond Princess cruise ship, [South] Korea now has the most cases outside China, and we’re working closely with the government to fully understand the transmission dynamics that led to this increase,” Tedros said.
The spread of the outbreak in confined spaces continued to be a worry. The local government announced that there had been 32 new confirmed cases in Hubei’s prison system as of Saturday, bringing the total to 304. Nearly two-thirds of the new cases have been traced to existing clusters at a church in the southern city of Daegu and a hospital in nearby Cheongdo County, according to the KCDC.
On Saturday, the provinces of Sichuan and Heilongjiang announced that they would move toward a “wartime” management system in prisons and drug treatment centers to try to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus. More than half of South Korea’s cases are connected to the Daegu branch of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus the Temple of the Tabernacle of the Testimony.
Worries about a longer incubation period have also arisen in Hubei after a 70-year-old man infected with coronavirus did not show symptoms until 27 days later, the local government reported on Saturday. Since members of the church attended a funeral at nearby Cheongdo Daenam hospital, at least 111 coronavirus cases have been reported there, including two patients who died of the virus.
Just days ago, Italy had only three cases, including two Chinese tourists. But its experience shows the difficulty that countries might face in containing the virus, which can be carried by people who don’t immediately show symptoms. The mass infection at the hospital is centered on its locked psychiatric ward, where a confined environment could have aggravated transmissions, said Jung Eun-Kyeong, director of the KCDC.
“What is worrying about the Italian situation is that not all recorded cases seem to have a clear epidemiological history — that is, a connection with travels to China or contacts with already confirmed cases,” Hans Kluge, the Europe director of the World Health Organization, told the Italian newspaper La Repubblica. A 57-year-old patient at Daenam hospital died of the coronavirus, state-affiliated Yonhap News Agency reported early Sunday local time. The man is the fourth person to die of the virus in South Korea, according to Yonhap’s report, which The Washington Post could not immediately verify independently.
At the beginning of the weekend, Italy had cases in two of its largest northern provinces, Lombardy and Veneto, mostly spread around smaller towns. But authorities said Sunday that there were also cases in Piemonte and Emilia-Romagna, also in the north. Trump was not told coronavirus-infected Americans would be flown home from cruise ship
The president of the Veneto region, Luca Zaia, said schools would be shut down until March. In Japan, the number of coronavirus cases rose to 121 on Saturday, more than tripling in a week. That number excludes the 634 people on board the Diamond Princess who contracted the virus.
“The moment isn’t easy, but based on today’s figures, we can still hope we can actually circumscribe the contagion,” Zaia said. One of the latest cases was a teacher in her 60s at a public junior high school east of Tokyo, who complained of nausea while working. The mayor of Chiba city said the school will be closed until Wednesday, public broadcaster NHK reported.
The governor of the Lombardy region, Attilio Fontana, said it was not yet time for drastic measures in the country’s economic hub, the city of Milan. “But if the situation worsens,” he said, according to the Italian media, “we will take measures like in Wuhan.” The teacher had not traveled abroad in the past two weeks and has no record of having been in contact with a known infected person, underlining the fact that the virus is now spreading almost invisibly throughout the country, experts say.
South Korea’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 169 additional cases of the coronavirus on Sunday, raising the national tally of the virus to 602. As numbers suddenly rose in Italy, the government has scrambled to contain the new outbreak, asking some 50,000 people to stay indoors and suspending all public events — including religious ceremonies and school — in 10 small towns to the south of Milan.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in told an emergency meeting that the country was now at a “crucial moment” that called for all out efforts from the government and public alike in face of the virus. Until a few days ago, Italy had seen only three confirmed infections, including a pair of Chinese tourists.
Moon raised the national alert level to the highest of “red,” a first for South Korea since the 2009 epidemic of H1N1 swine flu. “There is quite an evident contagion, a very strong one,” said Giulio Gallera, health chief of the northern Lombardy region, which has seen the majority of the cases.
The South Korean leader said the government is confident it can tackle the transmissions as most of the new cases are traced to existing clusters. The majority of South Korea’s coronavirus cases have been linked to two clusters at a church in the southern city of Daegu and a nearby hospital in Cheongdo County in North Gyeongsang province. Italian officials Friday attributed the country’s first death to the coronavirus, and Saturday said that a 77-year-old woman had also tested positive for the virus after being found dead in her home. But Italian authorities said the woman suffered from other health conditions, and were unsure if it was the virus that had killed her.
Moon said emergency support was being mobilized for Daegu as it was “nearing its capacity.” The cases in Italy appeared concentrated in the prosperous Lombardy region, which includes the country’s financial hub, Milan, and other areas nearby.
“Please avoid excessive anxiety and trust the government’s actions,” Moon said in a message to the public. “If all the people join with confidence, we can win. Trust and cooperation is the way to win this battle against the virus.” According to Italian media reports, one of the first people to come down with the virus was a 38-year-old who’d had dinner with somebody who had just come back from China. But some three weeks passed between that dinner and the time the man came down with a fever. In between, he ran a half-marathon, played soccer and traveled to several towns, according to La Repubblica, a major Italian daily.
Over half of South Korea’s 556 cases are traced to the Daegu church, which is a branch of Shincheonji Church of Jesus the Temple of the Tabernacle of the Testimony. Shincheonji, a fringe religious sect, is often described as “cult” by critics. Meanwhile, the number of confirmed cases of the virus in Iran has risen to 29.
The South Korean government temporarily shut down Shincheonji’s 1,100 churches and annex buildings nationwide in an attempt to control the spread of the virus among members and their surrounding communities. President Moon Jae-in called the shutdown “a fair and inevitable step” to ensure community-wide safety and said there was “no intention to limit religious freedom.” The outbreak there has been centered on the holy Shiite city of Qom, where on Wednesday authorities suspended schools and religious gatherings as a precaution. On Saturday, Iranian authorities also closed schools in the capital, Tehran, and issued a temporary ban on cinemas and art-related events across the country, state-run Fars News Agency reported.
South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency reported Sunday that a 56-year-old woman who had been diagnosed with the virus died at a university hospital in Daegu. Other countries in the region have also reacted with alarm, particularly after Lebanon’s first coronavirus case Friday was found to be a woman who had just traveled from Qom.
The KCDC has confirmed the fifth coronavirus death in South Korea. The woman in her 50s had been suffering from chronic kidney disease before getting diagnosed with the virus on Tuesday. The KCDC said it is investigating the exact cause of her death. In the past few days, Iraq and Kuwait suspended direct flights to Iran, while Iraq temporarily halted new visas for Iranian nationals and, along with Turkey, imposed restrictions on travelers who had recently arrived from Iran. Kuwait Airways said Saturday that it would be chartering special flights to evacuate citizens from Mashhad, Iran.
A different church in the southern city of Busan also reported three cases of the virus, one of whom is the son of a South Korean man who had been in Wuhan. The father himself, however, had tested negative for the virus after returning from Wuhan, according to the KCDC. As fears mounted, Israel announced Saturday that nine South Koreans who had recently returned home from a tour in Israel tested positive for the virus. Israeli and Palestinian authorities on Saturday urged anyone who may have interacted with the group visiting from Feb. 8 to 15 to self-quarantine as they work to trace who may have had contact with the tourists, who visited major cities including Jerusalem.
State officials in Afghanistan and Armenia have closed their borders to neighboring Iran as a preventive measure after Iran’s Health Ministry confirmed 43 cases and eight deaths in the country on state television Sunday. Israel’s ambassador to China, Zvi Heifetz, was among those who self-quarantined, the Jerusalem Post reported, citing Israel’s foreign ministry. Heifetz took the same flight to Seoul as the South Korean tourists and is quarantined in Beijing, the report says.
Afghanistan reported its first suspected cases of the coronavirus in the western city of Herat on Sunday, according to the health chief of the province, also called Herat. Three people, all elderly men, had recently returned to the city from Iran, Abdul Hakim Tamana told The Washington Post by phone. Roughly 200 students and teachers who came into contact with the South Koreans have also self-quarantined, according to the Times of Israel.
He said that the men have been hospitalized and that blood samples have been taken. A spokeswoman for Israel’s Population and Immigration Authority said Saturday that all non-Israeli citizens arriving on a direct flight from Seoul to Tel Aviv that evening would be denied entry. Israel’s Health Ministry has ordered Israelis returning from South Korea to self-quarantine.
“We do not know at this stage whether they are suffering from cold, pneumonia or possibly coronavirus,” Tamana said. Meanwhile, tests are continuing on the crew members on board the Diamond Princess. At least 74 crew members have so far been found to have the virus.
An Afghan National Security Council statement said the nation had “halted all types of travels to and from Iran.” All of the passengers have now been tested and almost all have left the ship, either to go home if they tested negative, to local hospitals or government facilities if they have the virus, or back to their home countries.
Thousands of people travel back and forth every day between Afghanistan and Iran because of trade, employment and family ties. Afghan officials were testing all people crossing the border for coronavirus symptoms. But many who travel between the two countries also use informal routes, where screening doesn’t take place. Some passengers were asked to stay on board to serve an additional quarantine if their cabin mate contracted the virus, but they are also disembarking Saturday to serve out the rest of their quarantine in a government facility, local media reported.
Also Sunday, the Armenian government announced that it would close its border with Iran and suspend air travel to and from the country for two weeks. In China’s ‘war’ on coronavirus, hospitals turn away other patients — with dire results
The outbreak has increased tension between Iran, already isolated by sanctions, and its neighbors. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Sunday that the threat of coronavirus had been exaggerated by the country’s enemies who hoped to cast doubt upon Friday’s parliamentary election. More than 200 port calls in Japan by international cruise ships have been canceled since the beginning of February due to the coronavirus outbreak, a Kyodo News survey showed Saturday, with the lost revenue from passengers coming ashore dealing another blow to Japan’s weak economy.
On Saturday, however, Iran itself ordered the closure of schools and universities in a bid to prevent the outbreak from spreading further. The 83-year-old woman who tested positive for the coronavirus when she arrived at Kuala Lumpur airport after disembarking in Cambodia from the MS Westerdam cruise ship has recovered, Malaysia health authorities said Saturday.
In Israel, reports that a group of South Koreans who tested positive for the infection had visited some of the country’s most popular religious and tourist spots prompted concern across the country. The woman “is showing good improvement and signs of recovery, however, she is still being monitored and managed in hospital for a slight cough,” Malaysia’s director general of health, Noor Hisham Abdullah, said in a statement.
Dozens of students who may have been in proximity to the South Korean tourists were directed to stay in home-based quarantine for two weeks, as were hotel housekeepers and employees of Masada, Tel Ber Sheeva and other national parks. The woman repeatedly tested negative while on board the ship and when she disembarked in Sihanoukville, then twice tested positive while transiting in Kuala Lumpur airport on Feb. 15. That set off a global scramble to track the hundreds of other passengers who had also disembarked then boarded planes bound for home.
Non-Israeli travelers from South Korea and Japan have been barred from entering the country, according to local media reports, and Israelis arriving from multiple Asian countries face two weeks of mandatory quarantine. The woman was taken to a hospital and given antiviral treatment and supplementary oxygen, and she showed improvement after 72 hours of treatment initiation, Abdullah said. Two more tests, conducted 24 hours apart, both came back negative for coronavirus.
More than 800 people in Japan have been diagnosed with the coronavirus, though the bulk of those cases come from the passengers and crew of the Diamond Princess cruise ship — which has reported an additional 57 cases, bringing the total up to 691. But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cast doubt on whether the woman was ever infected, saying she “never had coronavirus to our knowledge.”
An additional 147 cases that are not tied to the ship also have been reported, the Japanese Health Ministry said. Cambodia’s Ministry of Health had previously cleared the 747 crew members who were still on board the Westerdam and the 781 passengers who were still in the country of coronavirus infection.
Most of the new Diamond Princess cases were among crew members still aboard the ship, officials said. Separately, scientists in China are continuing to study how the virus is transmitted.
One Japanese woman who had been released from the ship last week developed a fever and tested positive for the virus on Saturday, the Health Ministry said. The woman had tested negative on Feb. 14 and had been allowed to return to her home in Tochigi prefecture, north of Tokyo. A research team led by renowned Chinese pulmonologist Zhong Nanshan had isolated live coronavirus strains in urine samples from infected patients, Zhao Jincun, a respiratory expert at the State Key Laboratory, told reporters in Guangdong on Saturday.
The latest case had reinforced concerns about Japan’s decision to allow passengers from the Diamond Princess to return to their homes if they tested negative for the virus after an initial 14-day quarantine period. The team of scientists had previously said the virus, in addition to being carried in respiratory droplets, appeared to be transmissible through fecal matter, underscoring the need to practice good hand washing as a preventive measure.
The Health Ministry said Sunday that a third passenger had died after leaving the ship. The cause of death was pneumonia, Japan’s health minister said, but the ministry did not disclose whether the man, who was in his 80s, had been infected with coronavirus. Zhao did not directly say that the virus could be transmitted through urine, simply noting that the strains had been isolated and that this had implications for public health control. They are continuing to work on isolating the virus and on a cure, the Guangzhou Daily reported.
In the light of the death, Health Minister Katsunobu Kato said officials will closely monitor the health of passengers who disembarked from the ship after the quarantine ended, including through daily phone calls. The situation elsewhere in Japan is about to hit “an acceleration phase,” he said. But he said people should pay more attention to personal and family hygiene to prevent the spread of the virus and recommended frequently washing hands, closing the toilet lid before flushing and making sure bathroom drains are not blocked.
The United States and other countries have imposed an additional 14-day quarantine on passengers returning from the ship, out of concern the virus was still spreading around the vessel during the initial period, but Japan has insisted its arrangements to isolate passengers and prevent the virus spreading were sound. Denyer reported from Tokyo, Chico Harlan from Rome, and Miriam Berger and Marisa Iati from Washington. Lyric Li in Beijing, Akiko Kashiwagi in Tokyo, Min Joo Kim in Seoul, Stefano Pitrelli in Rome, Ruth Eglash in Jerusalem, and Yasmeen Abutaleb and Carol Morello in Washington contributed reporting.
Japan’s health ministry says it set the conditions for leaving the ship after hearing experts’ views. But it says it takes the latest development seriously, NHK reported. Two Beijing hospitals quarantined amid fears coronavirus infections will spike in the capital
Japanese Emperor Naruhito, in his first news conference since ascending the throne, said on Sunday that he was looking forward to the Tokyo Olympics in the summer but that he was concerned about the spread of the new coronavirus, Reuters reported. Confusion mounts over China’s counting methods as coronavirus numbers swing wildly
“This new coronavirus is a concern. I would like to send my sympathies to those who are infected and their families,” he said, speaking on the occasion of his 60th birthday. Coronavirus claims lives of two passengers from Diamond Princess cruise ship, Japanese media says
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe ordered a government task force to prepare for a potential surge in the number of people infected with the new coronavirus, NHK reported.
Abe said the outbreak has entered a “crucial phase” with cases emerging around the country where the infection route or a link to China could not be traced. He said authorities need to prepare for a possible jump in patient numbers, by focusing efforts on preventing infected people from becoming seriously ill.
The State Department on Friday raised its travel advisory for Japan and South Korea to Level 2 on its four-level scale, urging older travelers and people with chronic medical conditions to consider delaying unnecessary travel.
Min Joo Kim reported from Seoul. Stefano Pitrelli in Rome, Simon Denyer in Tokyo, Steve Hendrix in Jerusalem and Liu Yang in Beijing contributed to this report.
Today’s coverage from Post correspondents around the worldToday’s coverage from Post correspondents around the world
Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign newsLike Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign news