Countries around the world are taking measures to stem the spread of the new coronavirus, COVID-19, as the death toll continues to rise.
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Vietnam Turns Away Cruise Ship
Vietnam has turned away a German-owned cruise ship with more than 1,000 passengers on board over fears of coronavirus infections on board, state media reported on Friday.
Authorities in Quang Ninh province, home to the UNESCO world heritage site Ha Long Bay, decided on Tuesday not to allow passengers of the ship AIDAvita to disembark on Thursday, the official Vietnam News Agency (VNA) reported.
“The vessel has docked in the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore, which have all reported coronavirus cases,” VNA said.
“Not allowing AIDIvita’s passengers to disembark is just a temporary solution to prevent the intrusion of diseases,” VNA cited a local official as saying.
Germany’s AIDA Cruises, the owner of the AIDAvita, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. AIDA Cruises is a subsidiary of Miami-based Carnival Corp.
The cruise liner left the Philippines port of Coron on Feb. 10 bound for Vietnam via the South China Sea, according to data published by the Marine Traffic ship tracking website.
It had been scheduled to visit Ha Long Bay, in northern Vietnam, on Saturday, then proceed to the Vietnamese ports of Da Nang, Nha Trang and Ho Chi Minh City from Feb. 16-20, according to CruiseMapper, a website which tracks cruise ships.
As of Friday evening, the AIDAvita was 176 km (109 miles) south of the Thai capital Bangkok, according to Marine Traffic.
Passengers on another Carnival Corp cruise ship, the MS Westerdam, spent two weeks at sea after being turned away by five countries, including Thailand, over coronavirus fears before they began to disembark in Cambodia on Friday.
Women sit in a street as they wear face masks in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam on Feb. 13, 2020. (Yen Duong/Reuters)First Case in Okinawa, Japan
A female taxi driver in her 60s has tested positive for COVID-19, local outlet NHK reported on Friday, citing local government officials.
Officials said that the taxi driver was very likely to have come in contact with some passengers aboard the cruise ship Diamond Princess.
A total of 218 passengers on the cruise ship have been infected with the virus. The quarantined ship is currently docked in Yokohama. Certain passengers have been allowed to disembark and complete their quarantine in Japanese government housing.
The total number of confirmed cases on land in Japan is 35, with one death of a woman in her 80s.
The cruise ship Diamond Princess, where dozens of passengers were tested positive for coronavirus, is seen through steel fence at Daikoku Pier Cruise Terminal in Yokohama, south of Tokyo, Japan, Feb. 11, 2020. (Reuters/Issei Kato/File Photo)3 New Infections in Hong Kong
Three new cases of novel coronavirus appeared in Hong Kong on Friday, according to Chuang Shuk-kwan, head of the Communicable Disease Branch of the Center for Health Protection.
One case involves a 53-year-old woman, who is a relative of another infected patient. On Jan. 26, she took part in a family gathering with 24 other adults and 4 children at a local restaurant. Among the 29 people, six have tested positive for the virus.
The second case involves a 75-year-old man who lives by himself. The man claimed that he had not traveled outside of Hong Kong recently, contrary to the data by Hong Kong’s immigration department.
The third case involves a 61-year-old woman, who had a fever on Feb. 12 and was hospitalized on the following day. She visited her two sons in southern China’s Guangdong Province from Jan. 23 to Jan. 28. The two sons are not infected with the virus.
With the three new cases, Hong Kong has 56 known cases of COVID-19, among them one has died, one has been discharged after recovering, while the rest remain hospitalized.
181 French Released After Quarantine
The first group of 181 French nationals repatriated from China has been released from their two-week quarantine, Reuters reported on Friday, citing local French health officials.
None of them has tested positive for the novel coronavirus, according to officials.
An additional 157 repatriated French nationals remain in quarantine in southern France. Among them, 122 will be released on Feb. 16, and the remaining a week later.
Currently, France has 11 known cases of COVID-19.
2 Counties in Hubei Province Announce ‘Wartime Regulation’
Dawu County and Yunmeng County in Hubei province announced a set of measures on Thursday to enforce “wartime regulation.”
One measure calls for banning all vehicles from entering and leaving local districts with a few exceptions, such as medical vehicles, police cars, and firefighting vehicles.
‘Daigou,’ or surrogate shopping, is now enforced in all villages and districts, meaning that residents must buy living necessities and drugs through third-party sellers. The daigou service is guaranteed at least once every three days for every household.
People are also banned from entering and leaving buildings, except medical personnel, volunteers, and people working for daigou.
People will be detained, in accordance with “wartime regulation,” for entering buildings and districts that have been sealed off.
On Wednesday, Zhangwan, a district in the city of Shiyan in Hubei province, also announced its own measures for “wartime regulation.”
A nurse (L) looks at a one-year-old boy as his father and mother (R) speak to the media during a ceremony marking their release after recovering from the COVID-19 coronavirus, at the Youan Hospital in Beijing on Feb. 14, 2020 (Greg Baker/AFP via Getty Images)Thousands of Chinese Workers Quarantined in Vietnam
A local newspaper VnExpress reported on Friday that 5,112 Chinese workers, who recently returned to Vietnam following the Chinese New Year holiday, have been quarantined, citing the country’s labor ministry.
These workers are being isolated at their companies’ dormitories and local hotels, while some workers suspected of having the novel coronavirus are being monitored at medical facilities.
About 26,000 Chinese nationals went back to China before the holiday, but only about 7,600 have returned to Vietnam.
Among those quarantined, 3,779 have been isolated for less than 10 days, 1,085 between 10 and 13 days, and 248 for more than 14 days.
Currently, Vietnam has 16 known cases of coronavirus.
South Korea Pledges Emergency Measures
South Korea’s two economic policy chiefs pledged on Friday to deploy emergency measures to minimize the impact on the economy from the coronavirus outbreak in China.
Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki and Bank of Korea Governor Lee Ju-yeol made the remarks at start of their meeting, as South Korea’s economy is widely expected to be hit hard by the epidemic because of its close business ties with its giant neighbor.
Governor Lee said the central bank was working on financial aid packages for those sectors directly affected by the spreading coronavirus, but gave no indication on whether it would lower interest rates to support the economy.
Japan Launches $136 Million Emergency Plan
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe approved a $136 million emergency package on Thursday to help the country’s effort to fight the novel coronavirus outbreak, local outlet NHK reported.
The package includes increasing the capacity of the country’s National Institute of Infectious Diseases to test samples suspected of having the virus, and providing financial support to prefecture governments to establish outpatient services for checking suspected cases.
A part of the money will be used to support small firms in the tourism sector.
The package also includes working with the private sector to develop anti-viral drugs and a vaccine.
On Friday, NHK also reported that a man in his 70s living in Wakaya Prefecture is in serious condition after testing positive for the virus.
The man began to have a fever on Feb. 5 and was admitted to Saiseikai Arida Hospital in Yuasa, a town located in Wakaya Prefecture, the following day. He was moved to another medical facility on Feb. 13.
A Japanese surgeon in his 50s who works at the same hospital tested positive for the virus on Thursday after being hospitalized three days earlier.
Japanese newspaper Mainichi Shimbun reported according to local government officials, the two had not come into contact.
A Japanese woman in her 80s died on Thursday in the second death recorded outside of mainland China.
Commuters wearing face masks ride a metro train in Tokyo on Feb. 8, 2020. (Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty Images)US Refrigerated Products Diverted Away from China
Jim Sumner, president of the trade group USA Poultry & Egg Export Council, said that Chinese ports have run out of space for refrigerated containers.
These containers, carrying food products such as frozen meat, must be plugged into electrical outlets after they are offloaded from ships, Sumner added.
The novel coronavirus outbreak has slowed both purchases at stores and the unloading at Chinese ports as people are confined to their homes in city-wide lockdowns.
As a result, refrigerated cargo containers are being diverted to other ports in Taiwan, Hong Kong, South Korea, and Vietnam, according to Sumner.
He added that Chinese authorities are now giving priority to shipments of medical supplies and pork.
“Everything else is being considered not a priority and is not allowed entry,” Sumner said. “China is basically shut down right now.”
He said about 300 to 400 refrigerated poultry containers, currently in transit, are being diverted.
Shipping containers are seen at a port in Lianyungang, Jiangsu Province, China on Sept. 8, 2018. (Reuters)All Aboard Cruise Ship in Cambodia Free to Go
All 1,455 passengers and 802 crew abroad a cruise ship docked in Cambodia are free to disembark, local newspaper Khmer Times reported on Friday, after 20 ill passengers tested negative for the novel coronavirus COVID-19.
“We have just received information from Pasteur Institute that all 20 samples tested negative for COVID-19,” said local health ministry spokesman Or Vandine.
The Westerdam cruise ship, operated by Holland America, was stranded for days in the South China Sea after it was turned away by Thailand, the Philippines, Taiwan, and the U.S. territory of Guam amid coronavirus fears.
The ship finally docked in Sihanoukville, a port city in Cambodia, on Feb. 13.
Kheang Phearom, spokesman for Preah Sihanouk Province, said the 1,455 passengers were of 41 different nationalities, including 271 Canadians, 79 Australians, and 57 Germans.
The 802 crew members included 362 Indonesians, 260 Filipinos, and 15 Americans.
Phearom added that 36 buses were ready to take the passengers to Sihanoukville International Airport for flights to Phnom Penh International Airport, from where passangers could go their separate ways.
Emily Zeeberg, spokeswoman for the U.S. Embassy in Cambodia, told the Khmer Times via email that the embassy was helping U.S. nationals on the ship.
“We will continue to work with the Westerdam and Cambodian authorities in assisting U.S. citizens to disembark and transfer to onward destinations,” Zeeberg said.
The cruise ship is expected to leave the port on Feb. 17, Preah Sihanouk’s provincial governor Kuoch Chamroeun said, according to the paper.
The Westerdam cruise ship is seen past fishing boats as it approaches the port in Sihanoukville, Cambodia’s southern coast on Feb. 13, 2020. (Tang Chhin Sothy/AFP via Getty Images)New Infections in Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore
In Hong Kong, the Centre for Health Protection issued a statement at 8 p.m. local time on Feb. 13, announcing three additional confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus.
All three new patients have no recent travel history outside of Hong Kong.
One case involves a 43-year-old man, a resident in Tuen Mun, who is the relative of another infected patient.
The second case involves a 67-year-old woman, who is the younger sister-in-law of a 75-year-old patient who already tested positive for the virus.
The third case is a 37-year-old man who developed a fever on Feb. 8 and consulted a private doctor the following day. The statement does not specify whether the man had come in contact with any infected patients.
In Malaysia, a 39-year-old tourist from Wuhan became the latest patient to be infected with the virus, local newspaper The Star reported, citing the local health director-general Datuk Dr. Noor Hisham Abdullah.
“The woman arrived in Malaysia from China on Jan. 25 with four other women,” the health official said. Her mother and a friend, also Chinese nationals, tested positive for the virus in early February.
Singapore’s Ministry of Health announced eight new cases on Thursday. None of them have recently traveled to China.
Two of the new cases involve Bangladesh nationals, aged 30 and 37, with a Singapore work pass.
Five new patients, two aged 54 and others aged 26, 48, and 55, are connected to a local church.
The eighth case involves a 30-year-old Singaporean man, who tested positive on Feb. 13. The man is a relative of a previously infected patient who had no recent travel history to China.
With these new cases, Hong Kong has 53 known cases of the virus, Malaysia 19, and Singapore 58.
Frank Fang, Zachary Stieber, Eva Fu, and Reuters contributed to this report.
For updates from Feb. 13, click here.
This article is from the Internet:Coronavirus Live Updates: Vietnam Turns Away Cruise Ship
WHO Officials Rush to Figure Out Size of Coronavirus Epidemic