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Coronavirus Live Updates: Cruise-ship infections surge as thousands remain quarantined

By Simon Denyer, Derek Hawkins and Adam Taylor | Published February 10 at 6:25 PM EST | Washington Post | Posted February 10, 2020 |

China tentatively returned to work Monday after an extended Lunar New Year shutdown precipitated by the coronavirus outbreak, but with deaths from the epidemic continuing to rise, much of the country remained at a standstill, and many were working from home. Meanwhile, an additional 65 people on board a quarantined cruise ship have tested positive for the virus.

HERE’S WHAT WE KNOW:

● An additional 65 people on board the Diamond Princess have tested positive for the new coronavirus, Japan’s Health Ministry says, bringing to 135 the number of people who are known to have been infected. Pressure is mounting to test everyone on the ship.

● China reports 1,011 dead, including 103 on Monday, and about 42,000 cases of coronavirus. More than 6,000 of the affected patients were in critical condition, authorities said Monday.

● Britain announced new measures allowing the mandatory quarantine of those infected after the coronavirus outbreak was designated a “serious and imminent” threat to British health. Four more cases were confirmed in Britain, doubling its total number to eight.

● New Chinese research says the virus can be transmitted by saliva, urine and stool, as well as the usual viral route of respiratory droplets. It generally takes three days from the time of infection for symptoms to manifest, and 15 percent of the infected contract severe pneumonia.

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5:50 PM: CORONAVIRUS DEATH TOLL PASSES 1,000, WITH MORE THAN 6,000 PATIENTS REMAIN IN CRITICAL CONDITION

WASHINGTON — Chinese health officials announced Monday that 103 more people died from coronavirus, bringing the total global death toll to 1,013.

The health ministry in Hubei province also confirmed 2,097 new cases of the disease, which has now sickened more than 42,000 people around the world, the majority in mainland China. More than 6,000 remained in critical condition in the hospital, officials said.

The outbreak has claimed 974 lives in Hubei province, the epicenter of the public health crisis. A Japanese citizen and an American citizen were recorded dead in Wuhan over the weekend.

More than 25,000 people remained hospitalized in mainland China, and roughly 76,000 were under medical observation, according to Chinese officials.

By: DEREK HAWKINS

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3:00 PM: SECOND GOVERNMENT-CHARTERED FLIGHT EVACUATING CANADIANS LEAVES WUHAN

TORONTO — A second government-chartered flight evacuating Canadians from the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in China has departed, Canadian foreign affairs minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said Monday.

The flight will stop in Vancouver to refuel before making its way to a Canadian military base in Trenton, Ontario, where its 185 passengers will join the 215 evacuees who arrived last week. All of them will spend 14 days in quarantine there.

Passengers completed health and immigration screenings at the airport in Wuhan. Anyone exhibiting symptoms of the virus would not have been allowed to board the aircraft, but it was not immediately clear if anyone was turned away.

Officials conduct regular health checks of those quarantined in Trenton. None of the travelers has been diagnosed with the virus.

Myriam Larouche, a Canadian graduate student, told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. that she passes the time in quarantine by doing her homework and watching movies. The evacuees are also allowed outdoors to exercise, but must stay within a restricted area and avoid physical contact with each other.

By: AMANDA COLETTA

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2:08 PM: A TRAVELING BRITISH BUSINESSMAN APPEARS TO HAVE SPREAD the CORONAVIRUS in at least THREE COUNTRIES

The story of a traveling British business executive who appears to have passed the coronavirus to Britons in at least three countries has prompted concerns over “superspreaders,” who could play an outsize role in transmitting the infection.

A British national, who has not been named, may have unwittingly spread the virus to at least 11 people in the course of his travels from Singapore to France to Switzerland to England, according to public health authorities and accounts in the British media. Infected Britons in England, France and Spain probably caught the virus from him.

The businessman, one of the first British nationals to test positive for the virus, works for the gas analysis company Servomex, according to the Guardian. He traveled to Singapore for work Jan. 20 and departed Jan. 22, the paper reported. He is thought to have contracted the virus while he was there.

Read MORE on website: “British coronavirus ‘superspreader’ may have infected at least 11 people in three countries”

By: KARLA ADAM

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1:51 PM: China turns to disinfectant spray in attempt to fight the coronavirus

Emergency service workers in China are soaking cars, buildings and even airplanes with disinfecting spray in an attempt to eliminate the virus from the city of Wuhan, where the epidemic began.

In recent days, media outlets linked to the ruling Communist Party have released videos showing the sprayers at work.

In one video posted Monday to the Twitter account of the People’s Daily, workers in face masks wielding spray guns walk down Wuhan’s narrow, empty streets as they trigger the devices, unleashing white clouds behind them. They appear to be spraying the substance indiscriminately, soaking cars and buildings as they go.

The footage also shows trucks flashing their headlights as huge amounts of the disinfectant spew out of tubes attached to the vehicles.

It’s unclear how effective the method is, especially considering that the entire region is under a travel lockdown and many people are not venturing outside.

Caitlin Rivers, an assistant professor in the health security program at Johns Hopkins University, said it’s unusual to use any type of spray campaign to try to prevent the spread of a viral respiratory infection.

“I have never seen that be used except for mosquito control, in which case that is warranted,” she said.

Thus far, experts think the coronavirus is largely transmitted by close person-to-person contact and respiratory droplets. “Some coronaviruses can persist on surfaces, but I usually don’t think of a street as a surface I worry about,” Rivers said.

By: Siobhán O’Grady

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1:00 PM: PRESIDENT TRUMP (Moron) SAYS Xi TOLD HIM HEAT KILLS VIRUSES

President Trump said Monday that Chinese President Xi Jinping reassured him that the cases of coronavirus are likely to dwindle during warmer months.

“He feels very confident, he feels very confident,” Trump said. “And he feels that, again as I mentioned, by April, or during the month of April, the heat generally speaking kills this kind of virus. So that would be a good thing.”

Trump made the remarks during a meeting with governors at the White House. He had spoken with China’s leader on the phone Friday.

By: ADAM TAYLOR

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12:54 PM: Coronavirus will ‘undoubtedly’ affect Canadian economy, minister says

TORONTO — The CORONAVIRUS WILL “undoubtedly” have a “real” IMPACT on the CANADIAN ECONOMY, the country’s finance minister said Monday.

Delivering a keynote address at a meeting of the Economic Club of Canada in Alberta, Bill Morneau said that the virus is likely to disrupt supply chains and hit Canada’s tourism sector. He also noted that oil prices have fallen 15 percent since the outbreak began because of a decrease in demand and fewer flights traveling to and from China.

“The virus is undoubtedly going to have an economic impact” across the country, Morneau said, adding that he expects it to be a topic of conversation when central bankers and finance ministers from the Group of 20 countries meet in Saudi Arabia later this month.

Last week, Carolyn Wilkins, the senior deputy governor for the Bank of Canada, said the central bank was trying to better understand the potential economic risks posed by the coronavirus. She said much would depend on how long the epidemic lasts.

“It’s never a good time to have an outbreak like this,” she said. “But when the global economy is feeling a little fragile [and] we’ve got mixed data in Canada, it’s certainly not great timing.”

There have been seven confirmed cases of the coronavirus in Canada.

By: AMANDA COLETTA

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12:36 PM: HONG KONG EVACUATE APARTMENT BUILDING after TWO CASES in UNITS 10 STORIES APART

Hong Kong’s Center for Health Protection announced early Tuesday that it would be evacuating some residents of an apartment building after two people were diagnosed with coronavirus, despite living in apartments 10 stories apart.

The evacuation will take place in the Hong Mei House in the Cheung Hong Estate in Tsing Yi, public broadcaster RTHK reported, and only those who live in apartments with the number 7 on each floor will be evacuated.

Officials said that engineers from Hong Kong’s housing department would investigate the sewage system in the building to see whether it could have been the source of the virus’s spread.

During the 2003 SARS outbreak, more than 300 people were infected in the Amoy Gardens apartment complex in Kowloon, Hong Kong, eventually leading to a quarantine of the apartment complex. Officials later said that the outbreak had spread through bathroom drainpipes.

By: ADAM TAYLOR

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12:16 PM: Coronavirus could delay delivery of Russian S-400 air defense missile system to China

MOSCOW — Russia’s arms export agency Rosoboronexport warned Monday that its exports of the S-400 long-range air defense missile system to China could be delayed by the coronavirus.

Government officials earlier indicated that a delivery of the S-400 system to China would take place in July.

“We’re working out these scenarios just in case. I don’t rule out that certain delays in implementing all of our contracts may arise,” Rosoboronexport chief Alexander Mikheyev said, according to Interfax.

He said the agency had contracts with China for delivery and for training its personnel.

Russian health authorities are monitoring more than 20,000 people in Russia for signs of the virus, including 6,000 Chinese citizens. Two cases of the virus have been found so far.

Russia’s Federal Anti-Monopoly Service warned Monday of “economic looting” by retailers seeking to take advantage of the crisis, with a sharp increase in the cost of medical masks across Russia.

“The vast increase in retail prices for medical masks in 68 regions of the Russian Federation has all the indications of ‘economic looting’ during a period of increased demand,” the FAS said in a statement.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said last week that pharmacies that price-gouged on medicines and medical masks should have their licenses canceled.

By: ROBYN DIXON

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11:53 AM: SCIENTISTS HOPE an ANTIVIRAL DRUG BEING TESTED IN CHINA COULD HELP PATIENTS

U.S. officials confirmed last week that physicians in Wuhan, China, have begun testing an experimental drug called remdesivir on coronavirus patients.

The drug, made by Gilead Sciences, was successfully used on the first U.S. patient, a 35-year-old man in Snohomish County, Wash. He recovered, but a single case can’t determine the extent to which the drug may have contributed.

Scientists are hopeful that the drug will work. Although remdesivir failed an ebola clinical trial, it has shown promise in laboratory tests against other coronaviruses, including severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS).

Timothy Sheahan, an assistant professor of epidemiology at the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said that instead of developing a new drug for each emerging virus, the hope is that remdesivir could be broadly useful and work against multiple coronaviruses — one drug that could work against multiple bugs.

“I think starting a clinical trial is essential for determining if this drug will work” against the coronavirus, Sheahan said.

One of the clinical studies will test remdesivir on infected patients who are in the hospital but do not have severe symptoms. The other will test it on people with severe infections, who are on supplemental oxygen or have other complications.

Gilead is providing the drug to Chinese researchers at no charge, according to spokeswoman Sonia Choi.

By: CAROLYN Y. JOHNSON

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11:41 AM: MANUFACTURING IN CHINA REMAINS SLOW

China’s manufacturing industry, which leads the world in terms of output, continues to be hobbled by the coronavirus epidemic. The full impact cannot be measured.

Smartphone sales in China may dip by 50 percent in the first quarter, in part because manufacturing has not fully resumed, Reuters reported.

The slowdown is having ripple effects. Automaker Nissan said Monday it would temporarily halt production at a plant in Japan over shortages of parts in the supply chain from China.

A Tesla factory in Shanghai is set to resume production, Reuters reported, but many key manufacturing facilities remain closed.

China has blocked the reopening of Foxconn plants, which supply Apple and other international technology giants, over coronavirus concerns, the Nikkei Asian Review reported. Some production may soon resume with a skeleton workforce, a source told Reuters.

By: BENJAMIN SOLOWAY

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10:49 AM: ADVANCE TEAM of WHO EXPERTS ARRIVES IN CHINA

An advance team of World Health Organization experts has arrived in China to help lay the groundwork for a larger team, officials from the body said Monday.

The team is led by Bruce Aylward, a Canadian physician and epidemiologist, who previously worked on the WHO’s response to the 2014 ebola outbreak in West Africa.

“Bruce and his colleagues will be working with their Chinese counterparts to make sure we have the right expertise on the team to answer the right questions,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO director general, told reporters at a daily news conference.

Officials from the WHO declined to be drawn into specifics about what Aylward’s team would be doing in China, describing the members as medical professionals who would be given a large degree of autonomy to coordinate with local counterparts.

“The team is there first and foremost to learn,” said Michael Ryan, executive director of the WHO health emergencies program.

Tedros had made a trip to Beijing for preliminary talks with President Xi Jinping and Chinese officials in late January, during which it was agreed that an international mission would be sent, but subsequent deliberations over its format lasted weeks.

Some public health experts have criticized the Chinese government for initially misleading the world about the threat posed by the outbreak.

“We were deceived,” Lawrence Gostin, a professor of global health law at Georgetown University who also provides technical assistance to the WHO, told The Washington Post.

By: ADAM TAYLOR

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10:31 AM: Hong Kong BILLIONAIRE PLEDGES $12.9 million to HELP Wuhan

Li Ka-Shing, the richest person in Hong Kong with an estimated net worth of $29.4 billion, has pledged a donation of $12.9 million to help Wuhan, the city at the center of the coronavirus outbreak.

The donation was made through the Li Ka Shing Foundation, which announced the news Monday that it would be making the donation “in support of the frontline healthcare professionals battling the Novel Coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan.”

Li is one of Asia’s best-known philanthropists and his charitable organization is the second largest private and individual-led foundation in the world, after the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

On Feb. 6, the Gates Foundation announced that it would commit $100 million toward the global response to the coronavirus epidemic. A number of other wealthy figures have pledged money to help in the fight against the outbreak.

The Jack Ma Foundation, established by and named after the Chinese billionaire and co-founder of Alibaba Group, pledged $14.4 million toward fighting the outbreak in late January. The funding will primarily go toward vaccine research underway at Chinese institutions. Other big names donating millions in funds include the online food delivery company Meituan Dianping, logistics subsidiary Cainiao Global and Tencent Charity Foundation. Alibaba’s payment and health subsidiaries are also offering loans and free services to affected people.

By: ADAM TAYLOR and MIRIAM BERGER

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9:58 AM: Quarantines and travel bans pose test to personal relationships

There’s nothing like a quarantine or an international travel ban to test a relationship.

As the coronavirus continues to spread around the world, mixed-nationality couples and families looking to leave China have found themselves divided by citizenship status. Frustration and anxiety is running high as people struggle to navigate emergency measures meant to contain the virus, but which critics say have stoked xenophobia and public panic.

Getting out of China, no matter one’s nationality, is becoming harder and harder. Airlines are canceling flights. Countries are imposing bans on people traveling from China. Within the country, movement between and within cities is highly restricted. Chinese regulations and diplomatic relations have further complicated some efforts by governments to evacuate their citizens.

Countless couples and families have faced a maddening array of international barriers.

Read more on website: “Love in the time of coronavirus, quarantines and travel bans”

By: MIRIAM BERGER

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9:40 AM: New model suggests coronavirus outbreak began in November, University of Toronto researchers say

A new disease-transmission model created by University of Toronto researchers suggests that the coronavirus epidemic started one month earlier than commonly believed.

The model uses open-access data to replicate epidemiological scenarios, allowing the researchers to test some narratives about the outbreak.

Although it is only a model, it may provide a plausible explanation for how the virus was able to spread so quickly — useful in the absence of hard evidence.

“You can’t get up to that level of cases if the epidemic started in December even if you pushed the reproduction really high,” David Fisman, a professor in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health and one of the model’s creators, said in a statement.

“If you have a reproduction number of three, the epidemic could not have stated in mid-December because, according to the graph, it is undershooting the cases that were found in December,” Fisman said.

The findings of Fisman and his colleagues were published in the Annals of Internal Medicine last week. The research suggested not only that the outbreak may have started earlier than widely thought, but also that it has not yet been controlled.

By: ADAM TAYLOR

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8:30 AM: Russia quarantines top Chinese diplomat

A top Chinese diplomat has been quarantined by Russian authorities as a safety precaution against the coronavirus outbreak, Interfax news agency reported Monday.

The diplomat, Consul General Cui Shaochun, had arrived in Yekaterinburg on Thursday to take up his new post but had not yet met with any Russian diplomats, according to Interfax.

Russian Foreign Ministry official Alexander Kharlov told Interfax that Cui would be quarantined at home for two weeks and would not hold previously scheduled meetings.

By: ADAM TAYLOR

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7:25 AM: Japan corrects new cruise ship infected cases to 65

TOKYO — Japan’s Health Ministry says 65 additional people on board the Diamond Princess cruise ship have tested positive for the new coronavirus, correcting an earlier statement from the vessel’s parent company.

The Health Ministry said the 65 cases came from 103 samples taken from people on board. The Diamond Princess’s operator had earlier said 66 more people were infected.

The latest data means that 135 people on board the ship have tested positive out of 439 tests carried out, or nearly one person in three.

Despite growing calls to test everyone on board the ship, Japan’s chief government spokesman Yoshihide Suga said Monday that under current circumstances, that would be “difficult.”

Officials say Japan has the capacity to test 1,000 people a day but also needs to direct resources to other test centers around the country.

Some 3,600 passengers and crew were allowed to disembark from a ferry quarantined in Hong Kong Sunday after all 1,800 crew members tested negative for the virus. It was feared the crew members might have come into contact with infected passengers on a previous trip.

“Isn’t that strange?” popular commentator Toru Tamakawa said on TV Asahi, asking why Japan, a much bigger country, had not been able to undertake a similar testing program. “How many people are there in Hong Kong? Isn’t that strange? Why could we not do that?”

The passengers on board the Diamond Princess were placed under 14-days’ quarantine last Wednesday, largely confined to their cabins apart from brief chances to walk on deck. But the crew have had to continue working, without any quarantine arrangements, and several have now fallen ill. One Indian crew member issued a plea for help on Monday, arguing that he and fellow employees will all soon fall sick if they remain on board.

By: SIMON DENYER and AKIKO KASHIWAGI

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7:11 AM: After being largely absent, Chinese leader Xi inspects ‘front-line work’ against coronavirus

After being largely absent from the public in recent days, Chinese President Xi Jinping was shown donning a face mask and having his temperature taken on Monday.

According to the state-run Xinhua News Agency, Xi inspected the “front-line work” to counter the novel coronavirus in the Chaoyang district of Beijing.

Xi acknowledged Monday that the situation remains serious, but he added that the Chinese leadership would take further measures to contain the spread of the virus and prevent mass layoffs as a result of the economic fallout, according to Chinese state TV.

To some, Xi’s recent absence from the public stage — and from the coronavirus epicenter of Wuhan — appeared to be an attempt to distance himself from the mistakes of the regional Communist Party’s leadership.

But public frustration — including with the Communist Party in Beijing — mounted last week, following the death of Wuhan doctor Li Wenliang, who succumbed to the coronavirus. Li had been among the first to raise alarm over the new virus. He was subsequently detained and silenced by Wuhan police.

His death last week triggered a short-lived Chinese online campaign under the hashtag #WeWantFreedomOfSpeech, directed against what many viewed as an attempt by officials to cover up the crisis early on.

By: RICK NOACK

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6:12 AM: China cracks down on wildlife trade believed to be behind virus outbreak

Chinese authorities said Monday they are cracking down on the trade in illegal wildlife, as the dangers of unhygienic wildlife markets where multiple species mix finally begins to sink in.

Any form of wildlife trade will be strictly prohibited on platforms including marketplaces, supermarkets, dining establishments and e-commerce sites, and all sites raising wild animals will be quarantined, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

Violators will be penalized, and for serious violations, suspects will be handed over to the police for criminal investigation.

Two weeks ago, China banned the trade of wild animals until the coronavirus epidemic has been eliminated across the country, after evidence emerged that the disease was transmitted to humans through a market in the city of Wuhan that traded in game meat.

The SARS epidemic in 2002-2003 was thought to have been transmitted through the trade in masked palm civets, a nocturnal mammal with a long tail that spends much of its life in trees and is considered a delicacy in parts of the country.

Police in the southwestern province of Yunnan, a hub for the illegal trade in wildlife and for transit from neighboring countries, said they have launched their biggest operation in history against the wildlife trade, with 2,351 places where wild animals are bred “closed or controlled” and 16 places for wildlife viewing closed.

Police on the island of Hainan said Monday they arrested a man for keeping a rare and endangered python on a farm. Shanghai police said they detained a man accused of illegal hunting, finding 109 dead wild animals, including wild ducks and turtledoves.

Traditional Chinese medicine — and mystical beliefs in the powers of eating and consuming products made from wild animals in many parts of China — have brought many species close to extinction, with the reclusive pangolin in particular danger.

Ironically, a suggestion that the coronavirus might have been transmitted to humans via pangolins might offer a small lifeline to that animal, considered the most trafficked mammal in the world.

But a crackdown on illegal wildlife trade after SARS soon petered out. Wildlife experts say the latest ban needs to be made permanent.

By: SIMON DENYER

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6:00 AM: Online company Indeed tells its people to work from home over virus fears

Online recruitment company Indeed has asked its employees in Dublin and Sydney to work remotely, amid concerns that some of its staff may have been exposed to the novel coronavirus.

In Dublin, the company employs more than 1,000 workers.

Company officials said the move was a precautionary measure, taken after one Singapore-based employee was tested for the virus. The staff member has not yet been confirmed to have the virus.

“Since some employees who visited Singapore have recently visited our Sydney and Dublin offices, we are asking all employees in the Dublin and Sydney offices to work from home until we have received confirmation,” a company statement read, according to the Irish Independent newspaper.

The suspension of office work at the company came as many Chinese were heading back to work on Monday after an extended break. Many Chinese companies — including e-commerce giant Alibaba — asked their employees to work from home after the virus’s spread accelerated, in what has been described as the “world’s largest work-from-home experiment.”

By: RICK NOACK

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5:45 AM: Mistrust swirls through Hong Kong as officials struggle to paper over the cracks

HONG KONG — Panic buying is gripping Hong Kong, where the collapse in trust in the city’s government over the past year is prompting residents spooked by the coronavirus threat to take dramatic measures to procure essential household supplies.

The frenzy is perhaps best exemplified by a run on toilet paper, which has become extremely difficult to find in the city’s supermarkets. Many other products are scarce, especially hand soap, sanitizer and surgical masks, and even staples such as rice.

One Hong Kong woman flew to Myanmar, which until 2016 was under U.S. sanctions, to stock up on surgical masks — a trip that until recently would have been a staggering move for a resident of a financial hub that proclaims itself to be “Asia’s world city.”

Underpinning the panic is the widespread feeling in Hong Kong, reinforced by months of political unrest last year, that the city’s government places the interests of the Communist Party ahead of those of Hong Kong residents.

Read the full report here: In Hong Kong, toilet paper is in short supply. Trust in the government is even more scarce.

By: SHIBANI MAHTANI

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5:30 AM: ‘Soon we will all be infected’: Crew aboard Diamond Princess pleads for help

NEW DELHI — As the number of confirmed coronavirus cases onboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship rises, Indian crew members are making a public appeal for help.

Binay Kumar Sarkar, 31, said he was one of about 160 Indian crew members on the ship. He said the crew was busy serving meals to passengers in their rooms three times a day and that everyone is “scared who will be [infected] next.”

Sarkar posted a video on Facebook on Monday ]in which he and several other crew members — all wearing masks and Princess Cruises uniforms — implored Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for assistance.

All those aboard the ship should be tested, and those who are healthy should be allowed to go to their home countries, Sarkar told The Washington Post. Keeping everyone on the boat means “very soon we will all be infected.”

The Diamond Princess, now docked off Yokohama, was placed under a 14-day quarantine that will last until Feb. 19. It has more than 3,700 passengers and crew onboard, and 136 of them have tested positive for the virus so far.

By: TANIA DUTTA and JOANNA SLATER

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5:18 AM: ELEVEN AMERICANS AMONG additional 66 people on board Diamond Princess who have virus

TOKYO — Eleven Americans are among 66 additional people on board the Diamond Princess who have tested positive for the new coronavirus, the cruise ship operator said Monday.

The latest results bring to 136 the number of passengers and crew who have tested positive for the virus, not including a former passenger from Hong Kong who is thought to have brought the virus on board before disembarking.

The latest cases were made up of four Australians, one Briton, one Canadian, 45 Japanese, three Filipinos, one Ukrainian and 11 Americans, Princess Cruises said in a statement.

The ship and its 3,711 passengers and crew were placed under quarantine last Wednesday.

“Since it is early in the quarantine period of 14 days, it was not unexpected that additional cases would be reported involving individuals who were exposed prior to the start of the quarantine,” the company said. “The quarantine end date remains at February 19, unless there are any unforeseen developments.”

Given the high number of people on board who have tested positive for the virus, there have been calls for everyone to be tested. Japanese Health Minister Katsunobu Kato said Monday that the ministry was looking into the feasibility of testing everyone before they are discharged, to ensure they do not spread the virus around Japan or elsewhere.

But later, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said that, under current circumstances, testing everyone would be “difficult.” He did not give reasons.

Last week, a Japanese government official said the country has the capacity to test 1,000 people a day.

Some 3,600 passengers and crew were allowed to disembark from a ferry quarantined in Hong Kong after all 1,800 crew members tested negative for the virus. It was feared the crew members might have come into contact with infected passengers on a previous trip.

By: SIMON DENYER

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5:11 AM: BRITAIN ANNOUNCES FOUR NEW CASES OF CORONAVIRUS, DOUBLING TOTAL

LONDON — Britain announced Monday that four more people tested positive for coronavirus, bringing the total number of cases in the country to eight.

Chris Whitty, chief medical officer for England, said that the “new cases are all known contacts of a previously confirmed U.K. case, and the virus was passed on in France.”

The new cases come amid concerns of a so-called coronavirus “super spreader.” According to media reports, a British man caught the virus in Singapore and is linked to seven other cases in England, France and Spain. Sky News said the British national flew from Singapore to the French Alps, where five British nationals tested positive, before flying to Britain on Jan. 28.

On Monday, the British government declared coronavirus a “serious and imminent threat to public health,” giving health authorities greater powers including forcibly sending people to isolation.

According to local media, the decision was made after one of the people in quarantine attempted to leave the hospital.

By: KARLA ADAM

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4:30 AM: China notes rise in percentage of virus patients cured, even as death toll soars

China’s health authorities say the proportion of people being cured of the new coronavirus has risen sharply in the past two weeks, indicating an improvement in the country’s ability to provide medical treatment.

The proportion of patients who are cured has risen to 8.2 percent, up from 1.3 percent on Jan. 27, Mi Feng, a spokesman for the National Health Commission, told a news conference. In the worst-hit province of Hubei, the percentage of patients who have been cured rose to 6.1 percent from 1.7 percent on Jan. 27.

Mi said that reflected an improvement in treatment across the country as well as an increase in the supply of hospital beds in Hubei after new hospitals were built.

On Sunday, 632 patients walked out of hospital, bringing the total of people who have been discharged to 3,281.

However, the daily death toll set a record Sunday, with 97 deaths, bringing the total to 908. The number of confirmed cases since the epidemic began rose by more than 3,000 to 40,171.

After accounting for those people who are cured or who have died, China is still treating 35,982 confirmed cases, including 6,484 in serious condition, with 23,589 suspected cases.

Nearly 400,000 people have been identified as having had close contact with infected patients, with nearly 190,000 under medical observation.

Mi said an advance team from the World Health Organization would arrive in Beijing on Monday. China has come under criticism for not allowing in foreign medical experts sooner.

By: SIMON DENYER

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3:46 AM: CHINA LAUNCHES APP TO CHECK PROXIMITY TO THE CORONAVIRUS

China has released a mobile app that is supposed to show people if they have come into contact with the new coronavirus, and whether they are at risk of catching it.

The “close contact detector” was released Saturday evening, with users scanning a QR code and submitting their name, phone number and ID number to make an inquiry into whether they have come into contact with an infected person, mainly through plane, train and bus journeys.

Those who have been in close contact are advised to stay home and get in touch with local health authorities, state news agency Xinhua reported.

The report did not disclose how the app would work, saying only that it received support from the National Health Commission, the Ministry of Transport, China Railway and the Civil Aviation Administration of China “to ensure accurate, reliable and authoritative data.”

China’s Communist Party operates an extensive system of surveillance over citizens, and identity cards are required to buy train and long-distance bus tickets. But the app will not currently be able to establish whether people might have caught the virus in shopping malls, for example.

The National Health Commission defines close contact as being proximity with a person who is confirmed or suspected of being infected with coronavirus, with no effective protection.

It includes people who work closely together, share the same classroom or live in the same house, as well as medical staff who have been in close contact with patients.

On a flight, Xinhua reported, all passengers in the same row as the infected person, as well as those three rows in front and three rows in back, would be defined as having come into close contact. This also applies to flight attendants who provide cabin services in the area. Other passengers would be referred to as having general contact.

In a fully enclosed air-conditioned train, all the passengers and crew members who are in the same compartment are regarded as being in close contact, Xinhua reported.

By: SIMON DENYER

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3:40 AM: Coronavirus is a ‘serious and imminent’ threat to Britain, says health secretary

The spread of the new coronavirus is a “serious and imminent” threat to public health requiring stricter quarantine measures, Britain’s Health Department announced Monday.

The statement in the name of Health Secretary Matt Hancock also designated Arrow Park Hospital as an isolation facility and declared that all of China’s Hubei province, the epicenter of the outbreak, was an “infected area.”

The statement added that new measures have been adopted, giving the government greater powers to quarantine and isolate people to stop the spread of the virus, which has infected more than 40,000 people worldwide, nearly all of them in China.

The announcement followed the revelation that one British man who caught the virus in Singapore went on to possibly infect seven other people around Europe before returning to Britain.

The British government advises against all travel to Hubei province and all but the most essential travel to the rest of mainland China. “If you’re in China and able to leave, you should do so,” the travel advisory warned.

On Sunday, 200 British and foreign nationals were evacuated from the city of Wuhan, where the outbreak began.

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