The Diamond Princess, the cruise ship that has been quarantined off the coast of Yokohama, Japan for roughly a week now, saw the total number of confirmed nCoV infections climb to 136 on Monday, cementing its position as the host of the largest outbreak outside China.
Japanese health authorities have been extremely careful in dealing with the ship, which has become a massive albatross for the government of PM Shinzo Abe. While Hong Kong let a cruise ship sail yesterday following a 4-day quarantine (the ship was reportedly found to be free of viral infections), the 'Diamond Princess', and the 3,600+ remaining passengers and crew, will be stuck in place until mid-February. The NYT chronicled the growing sense of unease and paranoia aboard the ship, which we cited yesterday.
The ship’s captain Stefano Ravera announced Monday that 66 new cases of the virus had been confirmed, bringing the infection total of passengers and crew to 136, roughly equal to all the other cases in Asia outside China. Media reports have claimed more than 2,500 passengers and crew remain aboard the ship.
According to CNBC, the nationalities of the newly infected are Japanese (45), American (11), Australian (four), Filipino (three), Canadian (one), English (one) and Ukrainian (one). Notably, all of these infections occurred person to person, since they were all spread from 'patient zero' to others aboard the ship.
Princess Cruises, the Carnival Japan unit that owns the ship, told NBC News that it was continuing to follow guidance from Japan’s health ministry regarding plans for providing medical care and passengers ultimately disembarking. Meanwhile, one passenger told the NYT yesterday that those aboard the ship are being left in the dark, and have resorted to tracking the comings and goings of ambulances to try to keep abreast of what's going on. Many suspect the virus has been spread through the ship's ventilation system.
Another cruise ship, the Westerdam, was granted permission to dock in Thailand on Thursday after three other countries - Japan, Taiwan and the Philippines - refused to grant it permission to dock.
The ship was quarantined for two weeks after a passenger who disembarked in Hong Kong on Jan. 25 tested positive for the virus six days after leaving. After initially finding no cases aboard the ship, the cruise line copped to the first ten cases, prompting more intense scrutiny by the Japanese government. Princess Cruises said it didn't expect new cases to be confirmed after the beginning of the quarantine, though that has clearly happened.
So far, it doesn't look like the virus has made the jump from the ship to the surrounding area. If that happens, expect Japanese authorities to resort to the same types of draconian quarantine measures that have been imposed in China.
Beijing Under Partial Lock Down As Virus Death Toll Tops 900; More Than 40,000 Infected
Summary:
- Virus death toll hits 902, vastly surpassing all of SARS (813) in only three weeks
- The number of global confirmed cases hits 40,553 in China (40,171) and offshore (382)
- WHO Director-General warns "we may only be seeing the tip of the iceberg"
- Exiled Chinese billionaire says true death toll closer to 50k, 1.5 million infected
- New cases confirmed in UK, Spain, Singapore
- Passengers aboard 'Diamond Princess' warn authorities aren't doing enough to protect them - and others
- Officials in Shenzen say they won't block Foxxconn factory reopening
- Cruise ship quarantined in Hong Kong allowed to leave after 4 days
Update (2240ET): And so the epidemic reaches China's capital Beijing. As gnews reports, as the coronavirus spreads from Wuhan, China has been implementing “closed management” by putting 80 cities under lockdown, and on Monday, Beijing authorities also issued a “Strict Closed Management of Residential Communities” in an epidemic prevention and control announcement (link here). It is an official declaration that Beijing, the country’s capital city of China, is now under lockdown.
Finally, #Beijing partially locked down, all communities under “closedown model “ management. Original Chinese language announcement here #武汉肺炎 #coronavirus 北京发布疫情防控通告，严格居住小区（村）封闭式管理https://t.co/FRGsRtbJNP pic.twitter.com/zRqnQEEOe7
— 曾錚 Jennifer Zeng (@jenniferatntd) February 10, 2020
According to the notice, Beijing will further enforce “community closed management” in a strict manner. Outside vehicles and personnel are not allowed to enter the city. People arriving in Beijing must also report their health status and complete the registration of personal information.
Those, who have left the epidemic area or have physical contact with persons in the epidemic area within 14 days of their arrival at Beijing, shall be inspected or quarantined at home in accordance with the regulations. They should take the initiative to report their health conditions, and cooperate with relevant management services. They shall not go out. Anyone who refuses to accept epidemic prevention measures such as medical observation and home quarantine constitutes a violation of public security management and shall be severely punished by the public security bureau according to the law.
Update (1900ET): The latest official "numbers" from China's National Health Commission are out and they confirm that after a modest slowdown in the past few days, the number of new cases has once again rebounded.
Here's what we know: the total number of mainland cases has risen from 37,198 to 40,171, with 97 new deaths overnight, the most yet in one day, bringing the total death tally in China to 908.
Update (1725ET): China's Hubei Province reports 2,618 additional Coronavirus cases overnight with a stunning 91 new Coronavirus deaths - the biggest daily jump yet.
This pushes the officially-reported "confirmed cases" to 29,631 as China's official death toll rises to at least 902.
While that is bad enough, the WHO Director-General warned ominously...
There’ve been some concerning instances of onward #2019nCoV spread from people with no travel history to 🇨🇳. The detection of a small number of cases may indicate more widespread transmission in other countries; in short, we may only be seeing the tip of the iceberg.— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) February 9, 2020
Which is all the more shocking given his - until now - stunning lack of fear or demands for containment of the dealy virus!
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