8 More in Japan found infected with new coronavirus

February 21, 2020

Tokyo--Eight more people in Japan were confirmed to be infected with the new coronavirus on Thursday, excluding cases found on the Diamond Princess cruise ship, quarantined for the virus at the port of Yokohama in Kanagawa Prefecture, south of Tokyo.

The eight are a couple in the city of Fukuoka, four men in the cities of Sapporo, Sagamihara, Tomigusuku and Nagoya, and two women in Chiba Prefecture and the city of Yokohama.

The husband and wife from Fukuoka, both in their 60s, have not been abroad recently, according to officials of the southwestern city.

The man from Sapporo, in his 40s, was in charge of administrative work for the Sapporo Snow Festival, held for eight days through Feb. 11. He did the job with a person whose infection with the coronavirus was confirmed on Tuesday, said officials of Sapporo, the capital of the northernmost prefecture of Hokkaido.

The man in Sagamihara, Kanagawa, is an inpatient in his 80s at Sagamihara Chuo Hospital, where an infected woman who died on Feb. 13 had temporarily received treatment. At the hospital earlier this week, a female nurse and two male patients were found to have tested positive for the new virus.

The Sagamihara municipal government is looking at the possibility of in-hospital infection.

The man from Tomigusuku, in his 80s, is the third person confirmed to have the virus in Okinawa Prefecture, southernmost Japan. The man, who has underlying diseases including diabetes, is hospitalized, and his symptoms are not serious, officials said.

He has never visited China, where the viral outbreak originated. The man did not seem to have had contact with any of the passengers of the Diamond Princess, which has been hit by an outbreak of the coronavirus, when the ship visited Okinawa.

The man from Nagoya, the capital of Aichi Prefecture, central Japan, is in his 80s.

Symptoms of the Chiba woman, in her 70s, are not severe, local authorities said. She is the seventh person found to have the virus in the prefecture.

The woman from Yokohama, the capital of Kanagawa, is the wife of a taxi driver infected with the virus. Jiji Press