The 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) yesterday continued to spread on a cruise liner under quarantine in Japan, showing the challenge of containing the global outbreak as the death toll eclipsed that of SARS almost two decades ago.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong authorities said that 3,600 passengers and crew quarantined on the cruise ship World Dream can now disembark and the crew have all tested negative for the virus.
The illness has killed 813 people, with all but two victims in China.
Photo: AFP
Confirmed cases on the cruise ship Diamond Princess<, moored in Yokohama, Japan, rose by six to 70, Princess Cruises said, making the vessel the biggest center of infections outside of China, while Singapore late on Saturday raised the number of its confirmed cases to 40, making it the second-largest number of infections outside China.
Reported cases in China alone have climbed to 37,198, less than two months after surfacing in late December last year in Wuhan.
The 2002-2003 SARS outbreak killed 774 people and sickened almost 8,100 others, in 26 countries over eight months, the WHO said.
Photo: EPA-EFE
China accounted for about 45 percent of SARS deaths, not including Hong Kong and Macau.
Japanese Minister of Health, Labor and Welfare Katsunobu Kato yesterday said the country would give priority for virus inspections on the ship in Yokohama to elderly people, adding that there are about 600 people on the vessel who need medicine.
Hong Kong authorities began releasing the 3,600 passengers and crew quarantined on the World Dream cruise ship in batches late yesterday afternoon.
Photo: AFP
Three Chinese passengers were confirmed with the novel coronavirus when the ship was in Vietnam just over two weeks ago and they have since been isolated in China.
The crew have tested negative for the virus, the Hong Kong Centre for Health Protection said.
Meanwhile, a UK citizen tested positive on Mallorca, Spanish health officials said, adding that the infection appears to have occurred in a ski resort in France.
“The British patient had been exposed to another person with [the virus] before arriving to Mallorca,” Fernando Simon, national director of Spain’s center for coordination of alerts and emergencies, said in a televised news conference.
The rest of the man’s family have tested negative for the virus, but would remain under observation, he said.
In other developments, the virus might have infected at least 1 in 20 people in Wuhan by the time it peaks in coming weeks, scientists modeling its spread said.
Trends in reported cases in Wuhan — a city of 11 million people in lockdown since Jan. 23 — broadly support the mathematical modeling the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine is using to predict the epidemic’s transmission dynamics.
“Assuming current trends continue, we’re still projecting a mid-to-late-February peak” in Wuhan, said Adam Kucharski, an associate professor of infectious disease epidemiology, in an e-mail yesterday.
Kucharski and his colleagues base their modeling on a range of assumptions about the virus, including an incubation of 5.2 days and a delay from onset of symptoms to confirmation of infection of 6.1 days.
Additional reporting by agencies
RISK REMAINS: An official said that with the US presidential elections so close, it is unclear if China would hold war games or keep its reaction to angry words The Ministry of National Defense said it was “on alert” as it detected a Chinese aircraft carrier group to Taiwan’s south yesterday amid concerns in Taiwan about the possibility of a new round of Chinese war games. The ministry said in a statement that a Chinese navy group led by the carrier Liaoning had entered waters near the Bashi Channel, which connects the South China Sea and the Pacific Ocean and separates Taiwan from the Philippines. It said the carrier group was expected to enter the Western Pacific. The military is keeping a close watch on developments and “exercising an
FIVE-YEAR WINDOW? A defense institute CEO said a timeline for a potential Chinese invasion was based on expected ‘tough measures’ when Xi Jinping seeks a new term Most Taiwanese are willing to defend the nation against a Chinese attack, but the majority believe Beijing is unlikely to invade within the next five years, a poll showed yesterday. The poll carried out last month was commissioned by the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, a Taipei-based think tank, and released ahead of Double Ten National Day today, when President William Lai (賴清德) is to deliver a speech. China maintains a near-daily military presence around Taiwan and has held three rounds of war games in the past two years. CIA Director William Burns last year said that Chinese President Xi Jinping
RESILIENCE: Once the system is operational, there would be no need to worry about the risks posed by disasters or other emergencies on communication systems, an official said Taiwan would have 24-hour access to low Earth orbit satellites by the end of this month through service provided by Eutelsat OneWeb as part of the nation’s effort to enhance signal resilience, a Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信) official said yesterday. Earlier this year the Ministry of Digital Affairs, which partnered with Chunghwa Telecom on a two-year project to boost signal resilience throughout the nation, said it reached a milestone when it made contact with OneWeb’s satellites half of the time. It expects to have the capability to maintain constant contact with the satellites and have nationwide coverage by the end
REACTION TO LAI: A former US official said William Lai took a step toward stability with his National Day speech and the question was how Beijing would respond US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday warned China against taking any “provocative” action on Taiwan after Beijing’s reaction to President William Lai’s (賴清德) speech on Double Ten National Day on Thursday. Blinken, speaking in Laos after an ASEAN East Asia Summit, called the speech by Lai, in which he vowed to “resist annexation,” a “regular exercise.” “China should not use it in any fashion as a pretext for provocative actions,” Blinken told reporters. “On the contrary, we want to reinforce — and many other countries want to reinforce — the imperative of preserving the status quo, and neither party taking any
RSS