Japan confirms more cases of new coronavirus infection

February 20, 2020

Tokyo--More people in Japan were confirmed on Wednesday to be infected with the new coronavirus that originated in Wuhan in China's Hubei Province.

The city government of Sapporo said that a male corporate worker in his 40s in the capital of the northernmost prefecture of Hokkaido has the new virus. The man, who is away from his home and lives alone in Sapporo, was having symptoms as of Feb. 8.

Infection could spread in the city, Sapporo Mayor Katsuhiro Akimoto warned, urging citizens to be more careful so as not to get the virus.

In the southwestern part of Hokkaido, a man in his 60s was found to carry the virus. He complained of symptoms, such as mild fever, on Feb. 3 and was confirmed to be infected with the virus in a test conducted on Wednesday. His condition is stable, local officials said. The man has never been to abroad.

The number of people confirmed to be infected rose to four in Hokkaido.

In Tokyo, a woman in her 70s, the wife of a man in his 80s who has tested positive and is now hospitalized, was found to have the virus. Infection was also confirmed for a Tokyo couple in their 70s. None of the three in the Japanese capital is in serious condition.

Four other people were also found to be carriers of the virus.

Of them, two are patients of Sagamihara Chuo Hospital in the city of Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture, near Tokyo. The two--a man in his 70s and a man in his 80s--were staying in the same room at the hospital. An elderly woman who tested positive for the virus and died stayed at the Sagamihara hospital temporarily.

The other two people are a male taxi driver in his 60s living in Naha, the capital of the southernmost prefecture of Okinawa, and a woman in her 50s, a resident of Nagoya, the capital of Aichi Prefecture, central Japan.

The taxi of the Okinawa man transported a passenger who disembarked from the Diamond Princess cruise ship when the vessel visited the prefecture. His symptoms are severe, local authorities said.

Hundreds of people on the cruise ship, which is now under quarantine at the port of Yokohama in Kanagawa, have been confirmed to be infected with the virus.

The Nagoya woman is hospitalized and in stable condition. She may have had contact with a woman who has tested positive for the new coronavirus, officials of the city said.

Meanwhile, the health ministry said that a Japanese man in his 50s, one of the 65 people who were evacuated to Japan from Wuhan on Monday on the fifth flight chartered by the Japanese government, has tested positive for the virus.

The man, a resident of Hubei, reported coughing and a sore throat during onboard quarantine conducted upon the flight's arrival at Tokyo International Airport at Haneda. He was sent to a medical institution.

Of the 64 other returnees, one person is undergoing a second test for the virus while 63 tested negative.

The five charter flights brought to Japan a total of 828 people, including Chinese members of the families of Japanese nationals, and 14 of them were confirmed to be infected with the virus. Jiji Press