Coronavirus news: Evacuated Americans flown home against medical advice and hundreds infected in China prisons
Britons still stuck on a coronavirus-stricken cruise ship in Japan must wait another day for repatriation flight back to the UK amid logistical issues.
The UK's foreign secretary Dominic Raab said on Thursday the British nationals would be flown home on Friday, when the Diamond Princess' quarantine period ends, but the British embassy in Japan has said the flight will now leave on Saturday.
According to the BBC, the embassy said the flight is "logistically complicated".
Elsewhere, protesters in Ukraine have attacked buses transporting evacuees from China to a hospital to be quarantined by lobbing stones and lighting bonfires.
On Thursday, six buses carried 45 Ukrainians and 27 foreign nationals from Wuhan, where the outbreak began, to Novi Sanzhary.
Ukraine's Health Minister Zoryana Skaletska said she will join those being quarantined to "reassure both those in Novy Sanzhary and the rest of the country".
In China, where the outbreak is concentrated in the Hubei province, 75,465 cases have been confirmed alongside 2,236 deaths. Over 1,000 cases and 11 deaths have been confirmed outside the mainland.
Here's how we covered development as they happened:
Around 70 British nationals still stuck on a coronavirus-stricken cruise ship in Japan will have to wait another day before they can be flown home, said the British embassy.
The embassy in Japan said the repatriation flight will now leave on Saturday due to "logistical complications", reported BBC.
Britons on board the Diamond Princess cruise ship have been under quarantine for the past 16 days and were due to fly home on Friday.
A couple who contracted the virus during their time on the ship will not join the repatriation flight and are currently being treated at a hospital in Yokohama.
David and Sally Abel, of Northamptonshire, were transferred from the ship on Thursday to a "lovely hospital".
David said in a Facebook post: "Outside the hospital I came over a bit weird and nearly passed out. Every pore on my body opened and I was wheelchaired to our room.
"We are both in the best place! They do know what they are doing and our two nurses are gorgeous. Sally likes the doctor too."
Residents in the central Ukrainian town of Novi Sanzhary threw stones, started bonfires, and clashed with police as they protested against the the presence of evacuees from China's Hubei province.
The protesters attacked six buses carrying the evacuees, comprised of 45 Ukrainians and 27 foreign nationals, and smashed the windows to at least two buses amid fears they could become infected despite authorities repeatedly reassuring them there was no danger.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy issued a statement calling for calm and empathy. He said: "There is another danger that I would like to mention. The danger of forgetting that we are all human and we are all Ukrainian." A demonstrator throws a stone towards a police van during a protest against the arrival of a plane carrying evacuees from coronavirus-hit China's Hubei province (Reuters)
Ukrainian authorities say all passengers on board had been screened twice before being allowed to fly and will be quarantined in a hospital for at least two weeks.
But protesters were not satisfied by the reassurances, with some insisting the evacuees should be taken to more remote villages or even Chernobyl, the site of the world's worst nuclear disaster in 1986.
Resident Yuriy Dzyubenko said: "Isn't there any other place in Ukraine that can host 50 people, that is located in more or less remote villages or in far off areas where there is no threat to the population?" (Reuters)There are no confirmed cases of the virus in Ukraine so far.
Health Minister Zoryana Skaletska announced on Facebook she would be joining those in quarantine in a bid to reassure residents of Novi Sanzhary and the rest of the country.
She said: "Once again I want to emphasise: these people are our fellow citizens, they are not strangers to us. We live in the same country and we have to take care of their health and safety.
"What was happening today with panic and misconception, negativity and aggression struck me very much. They struck the people evacuated from China the most.
"Therefore I ask you to express words of support and gratitude for agreeing to spend two weeks in quarantine for the safety of us all."
China sacks officials after rise in coronavirus cases in prisons
234 people in two prisons outside the Hubei province have been infected with coronavirus, prompting the sacking of several top officials.
Chinese authorities fired the chief of the provincial justice department in the northern province of Shandong after infections were found in a prison there and in the eastern province of Zhejiang.
Seven other prison officials were also fired, authorities told a media briefing. Yu Chenghe, deputy secretary-general of the Shandong provincial government, said the outbreak showed some departments had "poorly implemented their responsibilities, their work was not solid and epidemic prevention measures are inaccurate".
The director and Communist Party chief of the Shilifeng prison in Zhejiang was also sacked and an investigation has been launched.
The prison cases made up more of the 258 newly confirmed cases in China on Thursday, ending the 16-day streak of declines reported by Chinese authorities excluding cases in Hubei.
In Hubei, where the virus is most widespread, a total of 271 cases in two jails were confirmed, including 230 in a women's prison in Wuhan.
The governor of the women's prison had been dismissed for failing to control the spread of the virus, reported the Hubei Daily newspaper.
Kyrgyzstan has temporarily halted the issuance of new visas to Chinese nationals to avoid the virus spreading from the neighbouring country, deputy foreign minister Nurlan Abdrakhmanov was quoted saying on Friday.
According to Kyrgyz news agency Akipress, Abdrakhmanov said Chinese nationals who already have Kyrgyz visas are still allowed to enter the country.
The Central Asian country shares borders with China, Tajikstan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.
South Korea: Daegu and Cheongdo cities designated as 'special care zones'
South Korea has designated "special care zones" and cancelled public events after a spike in coronavirus cases was confirmed in the city of Daegu.
The number of cases in the country jumped from 28 to at least 204 on Friday afternoon, with most of the new cases linked to religious sect, the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, said the Korean Centres for Disease Control.
The increase makes South Korea the worst-infected country outside of China.
The outbreak began with a 61-year-old woman who developed a fever on 10 February but continued to attend at least four church services before she was diagnosed with coronavirus.
The Seoul city government announced it will ban rallies and shut down the services of the Shincheonji church to contain the spread of the virus, as the group has four locations in Seoul.
Shincheonji has closed its facilities nationwide, and said in a statement: "We are deeply sorry that because one of our members, who thought of her condition as a cold because she had not travelled abroad, led to many in our church being infected and thereby caused concern to the local community."
Park Won-Soon, mayor of Seoul, said places "which have many gatherings of citizens" including Seoul plaza, Cheonggye plaza and Gwanghwamun plaza, will be shut down.
Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyu said both Daegu and Cheongdo were "experiencing difficulties" as a result of the sudden rise in infections.
He said: "If [we] have been focusing on preventing inflow into the country, from now on, [we] will place emphasis on preventing the community spread."
Peng Yinhua was a respiratory doctor and became infected while working at the frontline in the First People's Hospital in the Jiangxia District in Wuhan.
He was reportedly hospitalised on 25 January and began treatment for the virus five days later, but died at 9.50pm on Thursday.
Peng was reportedly planning to marry his fiancee on 1 February but postponed his wedding to aid in fighting the virus.
Three Italian nationals have tested positive for coronavirus in the Lombardy region, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in Italy up to six.
The first case was confirmed on Friday, with the infected patient testing positive after meeting with a friend who recently returned from China, said local authorities.
Shortly after, Giulio Gallera, a member of local government, said in a statement the wife and a close friend of the initial patient had the virus and were now in quarantine.
Around 100 people are being tested for the virus in the city of Codogno, where the initial patient is from.
Five Qatar Airways cargo planes are flying in convoy from Doha to China to drop off medical supplies.
The convoy is part of eight planes to be dispatched to the coronavirus-stricken country, as confirmed by Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker at a press conference on Monday.
He said: "We are to send eight aircraft on the 21st of this month to China; two of them will go to Beijing, three will go to Shanghai and three aircraft will go to Guangzhou. These eight aircraft will carry medical supplies donated by Chinese people, Chinese embassies, countries, governments of Qatar and Qatar Airways to the Chinese people.
"We are the only international airline that has offered to carry all medical supplies to China free of charge. We have already been carrying those on our freighters because Qatar Airways has not stopped freighter services to China," he added.
A spokesman for the Health Ministry, Kianush Jahanpur, has confirmed 13 more new coronavirus cases and two deaths among the new cases.
In a tweet on Friday, Jahanpur said the new cases comprised seven people diagnosed in Qom, four in Tehran and two in Gilan.
But Persian-language broadcaster Iran International contradicted official numbers and reported as many as eight people have died as a result of coronavirus in the city of Qom.
The broadcaster quoted sources as telling them several cases of coronavirus have been "spotted" in Mashhad city, northeast Iran, alongside two additional deaths in the northern provinces of the country.
In a news release, Iran International's editors raised concerns the government was withholding information about the extent of the virus' impact in the country.
Fariba Sahraei, senior editor at Iran International, said: "The silence from Iran’s Ministry of Health concerning the new deaths from the coronavirus, are a further example of how the regime tries to censor the news and hide things from the public."
Hossein Rassam, editor-in-chief, added: "The fear of coronavirus in Iran could also affect voter turnout in the upcoming parliamentary elections in Iran, and the effects of the US sanctions are having a concerning effect on the healthcare available in the country."
An Israeli woman who was on the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan has tested positive for coronavirus upon her return, reports Israeli media.
According to The Jerusalem Post, the women had tested negative for the virus while in Japan but a test done by the Ministry of Health in Israel came back positive.
11 of 15 Israeli travelers who were on the ship will remain in quarantine for a further two weeks. They departed from Japan on Thursday via a chartered flight and arrived at the Ben-Gurion Airport on Friday.
The other four Israeli cruise ship passengers were transferred to hospitals in Japan for treatment.
Israel's Health Ministry confirmed the case and said in a statement: "In the course of testing conducted by the Health Ministry's central laboratory, one of the passengers who returned from the ship in Japan was found to be positive.
"The laboratory is pursuing confirmation of the finding. The remaining returning passengers tested negative today. The patient is in quarantine and under supervision and this is not an infection that took place in Israel."
The number of coronavirus cases in Beijing has spiked despite declining numbers of infections elsewhere in the country.
A major hospital in the Chinese capital reported 36 new cases, up from just nine cases as of 3 February.
Eight health workers, nine care workers and cleaners, and 19 patients and their family members make up the cluster of new cases at Fuxing Hospital, which is located about 3.7 miles west of Tiananmen Square.
Li Dongxia, the hospital's director, told reporters at a news briefing on Thursday: "I feel deeply guilty and distressed by the cluster case incident at Fuxing Hospital."
In response to the jump, Beijing and other cities have ordered measures including reduced opening hours at shopping malls, temperature checks in public spaces and disinfection at residential compounds. Worker Gong Lixia wearing a face mask sprays disinfectant to sanitize a parking lot at a residential compound (Reuters)Resident enters a plastic tent with disinfectant sprayed inside, at an entrance of a residential compound (Reuters)
A video hailing a heavily pregnant nurse working to treat coronavirus patients in a hospital in China as a "hero" has sparked backlash by Chinese netizens.
Zhao Yu, a nine-month pregnant nurse working in a military hospital in Wuhan, was featured by state media outlet CCTV.
The broadcaster was accused of using Zhao Yu as a "propaganda tool" by social media users and the hospital criticised for allowing a vulnerable, heavily pregnant nurse to work in such a contagious environment.
Streets in Daegu, South Korea, empty amid coronavirus outbreak
Shopping streets in the city of Daegu, normally bustling with people and traffic, have been largely abandoned as the city comes to grips with an outbreak of coronavirus that has seen cases double in South Korea. A beggar wearing a mask to prevent contracting the coronavirus is seen at Dongseong-ro shopping street in central Daegu (Reuters)A man wearing a mask to prevent contracting the coronavirus walks at Dongseong-ro shopping street in central Daegu (Reuters)
Coronavirus may be present 'in all cities in Iran', say officials
An official from Iran's health ministry has said coronavirus has spread to several cities in the country, according to the official IRNA news agency.
Health ministry official Minou Mohrez said: "Based on existing reports, the spread of coronavirus started in Qom and with attention to people's travels has now reached several cities in the country including Tehran, Babol, Arak, Isfahan, Rasht and other cities, and it's possible that it exists in all cities in Iran."
Iran confirmed 13 new coronavirus cases and two deaths on Friday.
Airlines to lose billions in revenue due to outbreak
Air travel will fall for the first time in over a decade as a result of coronavirus, said the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
In the association's assessment of the impact of the virus, it found a potential 13 percent full-year loss of passenger demand, specifically for airlines in Asia Pacific.
It will translate into a US$27.8 billion revenue loss in 2020 for Asia Pacific carriers, most of which are registered in China. US$12.8 billion is predicated to be lost in China's domestic market alone.
But the impact will be felt by the global air travel market, said IATA's CEO Alexandre de Juniac.
He said: "These are challenging times for the global air transport industry. Stopping the spread of the virus is the top priority. Airlines are following the guidance of the World Health Organization (WHO) and other public health authorities to keep passengers safe, the world connected, and the virus contained.
"The sharp downturn in demand as a result of COVID-19 will have a financial impact on airlines—severe for those particularly exposed to the China market. We estimate that global traffic will be reduced by 4.7 percent by the virus, which could more than offset the growth we previously forecast and cause the first overall decline in demand since the Global Financial Crisis of 2008-09.
"And that scenario would translate into lost passenger revenues of US$29.3 billion. Airlines are making difficult decisions to cut capacity and in some cases routes. Lower fuel costs will help offset some of the lost revenue. This will be a very tough year for airlines," he added.
Wuhan is 'safest place' for Kenyan students to remain, says government spokesperson
The Spokesperson for the Government of Kenya, Cyrus Oguna, has said Wuhan is the safest place for Kenyan students to remain to "minimise transmission" of the potentially deadly coronavirus.
In an interview with African radio broadcaster SpiceFM, Oguna said: "In efforts to minimise transmission of the virus, the safest place for the students to be is Wuhan which is in lock down, based on the fact that countries that have evacuated their nationals have had one of their nationals spread coronavirus to the rest in the plane."
He reiterated his comments in a series of tweets, adding: "Kenyan Ambassador to China Sarah Serem has been in constant communication with the student leaders of the 91 students that are in universities in China according to a student in China.
"The lock down in Wuhan doesn't mean that in totally the Kenyan nationals remain indoors, at some point, they are allowed to go out and get supplies from the supermarkets within their campuses."
BREAKING: 11 Americans evacuated from Diamond Princess cruise ship test positive for coronavirus
At least 11 Americans who returned to the US after being evacuated from the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan have tested positive for coronavirus.
The evacuees were transported from the ship to American air force bases this week, where they remained under quarantine. Five other evacuees had symptoms of the virus.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention have also said the US State Department evacuated Americans from the ship despite objections from health officials.
The CDC argued to keep 14 infected people in Japan instead of sending them back to the US.
