Coronavirus news – live: Japan struggles to defend cruise ship response after highest number of cases after China reported on board
Britons quarantined on a coronavirus-hit cruise ship in Japan will be evacuated “as soon as possible,” the government has announced.
“We hope the flight will be later this week,” the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) said, as some passengers were allowed to leave the ship after two weeks in isolation.
It came as the death toll from the virus, known as Covid-19, passed 2,000 in mainland China, with over 74,000 cases reported.
Britons on quarantined ship to be evacuated 'as soon as possible' Passengers look out from the cruise ship Diamond Princess at Daikoku Pier Cruise Terminal in Yokohama, Japan (REUTERS/Kim Kyung-hoon)
Britons on a coronavirus-hit cruise ship in Japan will be evacuated "as soon as possible," the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has announced.
"We are planning an evacuation flight from Tokyo to the UK as soon as possible for Britons who are on the Diamond Princess," an FCO spokesman said.
"We hope the flight will be later this week, subject to permissions from the Japanese authorities."
The FCO said some passengers had been allowed to leave the ship.
"At 0700 local time on Wednesday (10pm Tuesday, UK time), the Diamond Princess cruise operator and Japanese authorities allowed passengers to disembark from the cruise ship," the spokesman added.
"However there is a chance that people who disembark will not be able to join the evacuation flight.
"We have the utmost concern for the affected Britons and strongly encourage them to register for the evacuation flight."
Cruise passengers who are not taking government repatriation flights will begin to disembark the Diamond Princess today, a spokesperson for Princess Cruises has said.
"According to the Japanese Ministry of Health, the disembark process for those individuals who are not taking government repatriation flights will start today," they said.
"The disembark process will be undertaken over several consecutive days, since they will be tested, and the testing and results require two to three days to complete. A certificate that indicates a negative COVID-19 test result is expected to be granted by Japanese health authorities to exit the ship."
The cruise line also said it will give every passenger a full refund, and a free future cruise of the same value.
The firm said: "Because of the extraordinary circumstances onboard Diamond Princess, the company is refunding the full cruise fare for all guests including air travel, hotel, ground transportation, pre-paid shore excursions, gratuities and other items.
In addition, guests are not being charged for any onboard incidental charges during the additional time onboard. Princess Cruises will also provide guests with a future cruise credit equal to the cruise fare paid for the voyage."
David Abel, who was aboard the Diamond Princess, has said he does not believe he will be on a planned evacuation flight to the UK after he and his wife Sally tested positive for the virus.
Mr Abel appeared to cast doubt on the diagnosis on Tuesday when he described the situation as "a setup" in a Facebook post.
But he said in a YouTube video on Wednesday: "We've since spoken to a doctor that speaks English, and we've had to really press hard for that, and it has been confirmed by him we are both positive.
"We are going to a hostel because there isn't a hospital bed anywhere around. So, we're going to a hostel and in four or five days we'll be removed from the hostel and put into a hospital, where we will receive treatment.
"So I can't see that there's going to be any way we're on that flight to the UK."
Passengers finally leave cruise ship docked in Cambodia
Passengers disembarking from the Westerdam (TANG CHHIN SOTHY/AFP via Getty Images)
The remaining passengers who were stuck onboard a cruise ship docked in Cambodia for almost a week have left the vessel on Wednesday after they tested negative for the coronavirus.
MS Westerdam, operated by Carnival Corp's Holland America Line, arrived in the port of Sihanoukville on 13 February having been turned away at five other ports after leaving Hong Kong, which has reported more than 60 cases of the virus and two deaths.
The ship came under renewed scrutiny amid Cambodia's quick clearance for passengers to fly home, which was criticised after one American woman who had been on the cruise ship tested positive for the virus over the weekend after a special flight chartered by the cruise reached Malaysia.
"The last 233 passengers on MS Westerdam are disembarked and will continue to Phnom Penh by buses," said Kheang Phearum, spokesman for Preah Sihanouk province, where Sihanoukville is located.
Holland America Line confirmed in a statement the last passengers had been given health clearances to leave the ship and make their way home.
"The company is working to finalise arrangements for everyone," the statement said, adding that those who travelled home previously will be contacted by their local health department.
South Korea has reported 15 new cases of the coronavirus, including 10 people involved in a surprise outbreak traced to several church services in the central city of Daegu.
The spike in new cases is unprecedented so far in South Korea and brings the total number of people infected in the country to 46.
Thirteen of the new cases are in Daegu and the surrounding North Gyeongsang province, with 11 of them tied to an earlier confirmed carrier, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said in a statement.
The earlier case was confirmed on Tuesday in a 61-year-old woman known as "Patient 31". She had no recent record of overseas travel but had attended church services and sought care at a hospital before being tested for the virus, the agency said.
Now at least 10 people who attended religious services with Patient 31 have tested positive for the virus. One other person, who came in contact with her at a local hospital, has also come down with the disease.
Hundreds of people are believed to have attended services with Patient 31 in recent weeks at a branch of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus the Temple of the Tabernacle of the Testimony, a religious movement founded in 1984 by South Korean Lee Man-hee, who is revered as a messiah by followers.
There are no indications the coronavirus has spread to North Korea, the World Health Organisation has said, after South Korean media suggested there were cases and deaths there being covered up by Pyongyang authorities.
"At the moment there are no signals, there are no indications we are dealing with any Covid-19 there," Dr Mike Ryan, head of WHO's emergencies programme, told a news conference in Geneva.
WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic said North Korea had reported making checks on nearly 7,300 travellers entering the country over a six-week period to 9 February.
Citing the North Korean health ministry, he said 141 travellers with fevers had been tested for the virus and all had tested negative.
North Korean and WHO officials were due to meet in Geneva later to discuss preparedness.
Mr Jasarevic said the WHO will provide North Korea with supplies including laboratory reagents for tests and protective equipment such as goggles, gloves, masks and gowns for health workers.
Iran has confirmed two cases of the coronavirus, the first in the country, the semi-official ISNA news agency has reported.
ISNA quoted an official in the country's health ministry, Kiyanoush Jahanpour, saying "since last two days, some suspected cases of the new coronavirus were found."
The report did not give the nationality of the two infected people.
Cruise line Royal Caribbean has said it will send one million N95 protective face masks to China to help with the spread of coronavirus, Cathy Adams reports.
"We admire the all-out efforts of the Chinese government and people to address this crisis, and we want to bring our resources to bear to help their efforts," said Richard Fain, chairman and CEO of Royal Caribbean.
The cruise line also said it would dedicate two of its ships to humanitarian efforts in Australia and California, to help with the recent fires crisis.
China has expelled three Wall STreet Journal reporters over an opinion article which described the country as the "real sick man of Asia," Rory Sullivan reports:
A Japanese infectious disease specialist has castigated his government's handling of quarantine on a coronavirus-stricken cruise ship, saying it was run by "bureaucrats" who stoked the crisis by failing to follow basic protocols.
Kentaro Iwata of Kobe University Hospital took his criticism to YouTube after he spent a day as a volunteer doctor on the Diamond Princess. The luxury liner has become an incubator for the novel coronavirus, with more than 600 people now infected.
"The cruise ship was completely inadequate in terms of the infection control," he said in his video.
"There was no single professional infection control person inside the ship and there was nobody in charge of infection prevention as a professional. The bureaucrats were in charge of everything."
Efforts to prevent and control the coronavirus in China's Hubei province have made progress but the situation remains severe, China's vice premier, Sun Chunlan, has said, according to state-run CCTV.
Authorities in Beijing are urging both Hubei and Wuhan, the city at the epicentre of the outbreak, to strengthen checks on patients with fever, the broadcaster said.
Coronavirus-infected Briton on quarantined cruise ship has early onset dementia, son says
A British pensioner who has tested positive for coronavirus on board a quarantined cruise ship in Japan is also suffering from early onset dementia, his son has said.
Steve Abel, of Northampton, said his parents, David and Sally Abel, have confirmed that they have tested positive for the virus and have been told to stay in their cabin on the Diamond Princess.
Mr Abel said his father has a number of medical issues and described him as an insulin-dependent Type 2 diabetic, who has a tooth infection, and was also diagnosed with early onset dementia a couple of years ago.
A clearly upset Mr Abel described it as a "very frustrating" situation for the whole family as he told BBC Breakfast: "They are just waiting. They have had their bags packed for over 24 hours now. They thought they were being taken yesterday but no-one came and there was no communication."
He added: "One minute they are being told they are being taken in an ambulance. The next minute they are being told they will be taken on a coach. I do not know what the next few days are going to hold for them.
"They are just being messed about. These are two old-age pensioners. They have been through so much and I just want someone to take care of them.
Mr Abel said his worst fear would be if his parents were separated because "with my dad's early onset dementia ... he could wake up and be a little bit confused, so my mum needs to be there with him".
The Chinese Communist Party's Youth League removed a pair of anime-like characters this week after their introduction in the midst of the coronavirus outbreak unleashed a storm of criticism and mockery online, Reuters reports.
The fictitious brother-and-sister duo, dressed in traditional attire and named after characters in poems by Mao Zedong, were rolled out on Monday as "virtual idols" in an apparent attempt to lift spirits as China deals with an outbreak that has infected tens of thousands of people and killed more than 2,000.
Many negative comments, some of which received thousands of "likes" on the Youth League's account on the Twitter-like Weibo, were removed during the day on Monday. By the end of the day, the post with the avatars had also been removed.
"Instead of spending time crafting the idols, I'd rather you make some real contribution to help with Wuhan," one person wrote in a Weibo post that has since been deleted, referring to the city at the centre of the virus outbreak.
A Chinese film director and his family have died from coronavirus after quarantining themselves at home in the city at the epicentre of the outbreak, Peter Stubley reports.
North Korea imposes strict quarantine on those who display fever
North Korea has imposed a strict quarantine around foreigners or returning nationals who display fever on entering the country, but has found no cases of coronavirus yet, its envoy to the United Nations in Geneva has said.
Han Tae Song, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) ambassador, said its officials had extended the quarantine period to some 30 days - double the 14-day incubation period for the virus.
"(There has been) no case of the outbreak of coronavirus," Mr Han told Reuters. "We have a strict quarantine in certain areas for certain times." Asked about suspect cases, he said: "The main suspects could be travellers who visited other countries - North Korean as well as foreigners.
"I was informed that we extended the quarantine, actually it was 14 days, but according to scientific results, coronavirus could break out even three weeks later. That is why we extended to 30 days quarantine... Prevention is less cost than cure."
