2 Hokkaido Boys Infected with New Coronavirus

February 22, 2020

Sapporo- Two boys in the northernmost Japan prefecture of Hokkaido have been confirmed to have the new coronavirus, the prefectural government said Friday.

The two, who are brothers, are students at the same elementary school in the town of Nakafurano. The younger boy is aged under 10.

The school canceled classes on Friday afternoon, held a meeting with parents of students attending the school to explain the situation, and disinfected its facilities to prevent further infection.

On the day, the Saitama prefectural government said that a preschool boy in the prefecture north of Tokyo was found to be infected with the virus.

The boy returned from the Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicenter of the virus, with his father on Jan. 30, aboard a Japanese government-chartered flight. The father was confirmed infected with the virus on Feb. 10.

According to the Hokkaido government, the under-10 boy has been absent from school since last Saturday, when he developed a fever. Meanwhile, the older brother left school early on Tuesday after developing a fever on the day.

The two were hospitalized on Wednesday and tested positive for the virus on Friday. Both boys are recovering. The children have no histories of traveling abroad, and it is unclear how they were infected.

On Friday, the town government of Nakafurano established a task force with the aim of preventing the spread of the virus.

The town will talk with the prefectural government and other parties concerned on whether to resume classes after the three-day weekend through Monday, which is a public holiday, while deciding to make sure that the school will be informed if any other children feel unwell.

"Now that schoolchildren have become patients, we have to deal with the situation with a greater sense of crisis," Hokkaido Governor Naomichi Suzuki said. Mitsuaki Nakajima, deputy mayor of Nakafurano, voiced the town's eagerness to take necessary measures swiftly.

The Hokkaido government also said that a woman in her 40s who lives in the city of Chitose has been infected with the virus.

The woman, a quarantine worker at New Chitose Airport, visited a medical institution on Tuesday after developing a mild fever last Sunday. She is doing well, according to prefectural officials.

She has no recent records of traveling abroad, and the prefecture is investigating people with whom she has had close contact, as well as her recent activities.

In Tokyo, infection was confirmed for three people.

Of them, a female part-timer in her 50s who has diabetes and asthma is in severe condition, according to the Tokyo metropolitan government.

The other two--a woman in her 50s who is the wife of an infected doctor at Makita General Hospital in Tokyo's Ota Ward and a self-employed woman in her 70s--attended a dinner party held on Jan. 22.

In the city of Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture, south of Tokyo, a male inpatient in his 80s at Sagamihara Chuo Hospital and his wife in her 80s were newly confirmed to be infected with the virus.

An infected woman who died on Feb. 13 temporarily received treatment at the hospital. Besides the couple, several people related to the hospital were earlier found to have the virus.

Infection was also confirmed for a woman in the Kanagawa capital of Yokohama. She is a member of the family of a man who has tested positive for the coronavirus.

In Chiba Prefecture, east of Tokyo, a man in his 60s was confirmed infected with the virus.

In Ishikawa Prefecture, central Japan, a male worker of the prefectural government in his 50s was found to have the virus. He visited Tokyo on Feb. 12-14 on a business trip.

In Nagoya, the capital of the central prefecture of Aichi, a man in his 70s and a woman in her 20s were found to carry the virus. A female nurse in her 20s in the southwestern city of Kumamoto was also confirmed to have the virus. Jiji Press