Saturday, February 22, 2020

Coronavirus Deaths Outside China Spike As WHO Team Visits Wuhan


Coronavirus Deaths Outside China Spike As WHO Team Visits Wuhan: Live Updates





  • Italy confirms second death, 12 towns on lockdown, more than 50 cases confirmed
  • Japan cases triple in a week to 121
  • Chinese scientists find virus in urine
  • Experts propose 27 day quarantine, say 14 days likely not long enough
  • Cases outside China go exponential
  • 32 UK and European citizens arrive back in UK on evac flight
  • Outbreak reported in South Korean psychiatric ward
  • WHO team visits Wuhan; will give Monday press conference
  • Iran reports 10 new cases, deaths climb to 5
  • San Diego says 200 under 'medical observation'
  • Young woman infected five relatives without ever showing symptoms
  • South Korea cases surge 8-fold in 4 days to 433; country reports third death

Update (1330ET): News reports claim that roughly half of the latest batch of confirmed cases in South Korea which doubled the country's total confirmed came from a hospital near Daegu in Cheongdo County, where 11 cases were confirmed. 109 of those infected found to be in the psychiatric ward, either as patients or staff, according to the director of the South Korean CDCP. Nine of them were doctors.
The Blue House has asked South Korean citizens to avoid group activities and assemblies, and recommended that events be replaced with online gatherings. If its guidelines aren't followed voluntarily, the government warned that it would resort to "strict measures" to contain the outbreak if its guidelines aren't followed by the public.
In yet another sign of Japan's shortcomings when attempting to contain the virus, an officer who worked at an airport quarantine in northern Japan has reportedly tested positive for the virus.
Britain's Foreign Officer confirmed Saturday that 32 British and European citizens had landed back in the UK, and would soon be quarantined.
The latest total for Japan puts cases at 738, including some passengers and crew from the "Diamond Princess."

Update (1100ET): Italian health officials have confirmed nearly two dozen more cases across Lombardy and Veneto, according to Bloomberg.
The Lombardy region has 39 coronavirus cases with another 12 cases in the Veneto, regional officials said in a press conference Saturday in Milan. Most of the cases are in the Codogno area, 60 kilometers (37 miles) from Milan. A woman who was found dead in her home subsequently tested positive, the health secretary said. Earlier, three tourists in Rome were diagnosed with the virus.
* * *
When WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros was asked on Thursday whether the COVID-19 virus was at a tipping point, he replied that the window to stop the outbreak from growing exponentially worse was rapidly closing.

Though by Friday night, it certainly seemed like that window had slammed shut. In South Korea, cases went exponential, soaring by 70% in one day.
Overnight, the country reported another rash of confirmed cases, bringing the total to 433, with 352 in Daegu, presumably members of the cult-like church where a 'super-spreader' worshipped. That marks an eight-fold increase in cases in just four days for South Korea, as the APreported.
SK also reported its third death, a man in his 40s who was found dead in his apartment and posthumously tested.
South Korean health officials warned they could soon see a rash of deaths as several patients are in serious condition. Virus patients with signs of pneumonia or other serious conditions at the Cheongdo hospital were transferred elsewhere as 17 of them are in critical condition, according to SK Vice Health Minister Kim Gang-lip told reporters.

The country has followed China in imposing quarantines (everyone is too terrified to go outside anyway) and they're hoping to prevent a national outbreak, despite a few cases in Seoul that weren't immediately traceable to an obvious source, which is sort of discouraging.
"Although we are beginning to see some more cases nationwide, infections are still sporadic outside of the special management zone of Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province," Kim said during a briefing. He called for maintaining strong border controls to prevent infections from China and elsewhere from entering South Korea.
In Italy, a seemingly minor outbreak went exponential. By day's end, Italian health authorities had confirmed their first virus-related fatality, and 12 towns in Lombardy were under strict quarantine orders with residents huddling terrified inside their homes, a tableau that has become all too familiar by now. Another fatality followed overnight, as a couple more towns joined in the lockdown. This marked Italy as the first European country to see its own nationals succumb to the virus, according to Euronews.

Across Italy, there are 32 cases in Codogno, Lombardy, and seven in Veneto, according to the AFP and Sky Italia television. Many of the new cases represented the first infections in Italy acquired through secondary contagion.
In Iran, 10 more cases, and one more death, were recorded overnight. That brings the total number of confirmed cases to 28, including cases in Qom and Tehran. So far, five Iranians have died.
As we await more information out of China, CNBC's Eunice Yoon reports that the team would hold a press briefing on Monday at 6 am ET.









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