Coronavirus Outbreak LIVE Updates: Russian authorities have quarantined a top Chinese diplomat as a safety precaution against coronavirus shortly after he arrived in Russia to take up his new post, the Interfax news agency reported on Monday. Consul General Cui Shaochun arrived in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg on Thursday to start his new job, but instead of having scheduled meetings he was told to stay at home for two weeks, Russian foreign ministry official Alexander Kharlov was quoted as saying. The Chinese consulate in Yekaterinburg did not answer calls on Monday.
Another 65 people aboard the quarantined Diamond Princess cruise ship moored off Japan have been diagnosed with novel coronavirus, the health ministry said Monday, bringing the total number of known infections to 135. The Diamond Princess has been in quarantine since arriving off the Japanese coast early last week after the virus was detected in a former passenger who got off the ship last month in Hong Kong.
The European Union will host an extraordinary meeting of health ministers on Thursday, along with a WHO envoy, to discuss the novel coronavirus outbreak. So far, only around 30 cases of the new strain have been detected in Europe, but the World Health Organisation warns that cases outside China could accelerate.
Health Minister Harsh Vardhan today assured Parliament that India was equipped to deal with the Coronavirus outbreak, 3 cases of which have been found in Kerala. “India is taking all preventive measures. We are monitoring and reviewing the situation daily. Till now 1,118 flights have been screened,” he said.
Meanwhile, around 60 more people aboard the quarantined Diamond Princess cruise ship moored off Japan have been diagnosed with novel coronavirus, national broadcaster NHK said Monday, bringing the total number of infected to about 130. Other local media also reported the new cases, but health ministry officials declined to comment.
The Diamond Princess has been in quarantine since arriving off the Japanese coast early last week after the virus was detected in a former passenger who got off the ship last month in Hong Kong.
When the boat arrived off Japan, authorities initially tested nearly 300 people for the virus of the 3,711 on board, gradually evacuating dozens who were infected to local medical facilities.
In recent days, testing has expanded to those with new symptoms or who had close contact with other infected passengers or crew, and several more cases were reported over the weekend.
Those who remain on the ship have been asked to stay inside their cabins and allowed only briefly onto open decks.
The death toll in China due to novel coronavirus epidemic has gone up to 908 and the number of confirmed cases rose over 40,000, Chinese health officials said today. There were 97 deaths and 3,062 new confirmed cases of the lethal infection on Sunday, China’s National Health Commission said.
Ninety-one deaths were in Hubei province, the epicentre of the epidemic, two in Anhui, and one each in Heilongjiang, Jiangxi, Hainan and Gansu, according to the commission.
A total of 908 people have died of the disease and 40,171 confirmed cases of the outbreak were reported in 31 provincial-level regions so far, it said.
On Sunday, as many as 3,281 patients have been discharged from hospital after recovery. So far, over 630 people, including 356 in Hubei, have been discharged, state-run Xinhua news agency quoted the commission as saying.
Meanwhile, thousands of people stranded aboard a cruise ship in Hong Kong for five days were allowed to disembark on Sunday after its 1,800 crew tested negative for the deadly new coronavirus.
Health authorities in the semi-autonomous Asian financial hub said the crew and a similar number of passengers had been released from a quarantine imposed because of fears some staff could have contracted the deadly virus on a previous voyage and passed it on.
The World Dream carried three Chinese passengers to Vietnam between January 19 and 24 who were later found to be infected with the SARS-like coronavirus, which has killed more than 900 people in China since it emerged in December.
The government grounded the ship on its arrival in Hong Kong Wednesday while tests were carried out on the crew, but said the passengers need not undergo examination as they had no contact with the three sick holidaymakers on the January trip.
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