Japan confirms 41 people with contacts with pneumonia patients

January 21, 2020

Tokyo--The Japanese health ministry said Monday that it has identified 41 people who may have had long-term contacts with patients of pneumonia caused by a new strain of coronavirus that has led to an outbreak of the disease in the inland China city of Wuhan.

While three of them have already left Japan, the ministry has been able to get in touch with all of the 41 people, and no new case of infection has been confirmed in the country, the ministry said.

The ministry will monitor the 41 people's health conditions for about two weeks.

The ministry said last week that it has confirmed the first case of infection with the new coronavirus in Japan, noting that the patient is a Chinese man in Kanagawa Prefecture, south of Tokyo, who tested positive for the virus after returning from Wuhan.

According to the ministry's announcement on Monday, 38 of the 41 people may have spent a large amount of time with the Chinese man at the workplace or at home.

The other three people traveled with a woman from Wuhan whose infection was confirmed while she was in South Korea. The three, who flew aboard the same plane, entered Japan later.

The ministry has been advising people entering Japan from Wuhan to wear a mask if they have symptoms such as fever and go to see a doctor after making an advance call.

It also asked airlines to make in-flight announcements calling on passengers from the city to Japan to report their conditions voluntarily if they have any of such symptoms.

Japan's National Institute of Infectious Diseases is working to build a system to detect people with the new coronavirus so that it can quickly respond to any new cases of infection. Jiji Press