Japan confirms tour bus guide’s infection with China coronavirus

January 30, 2020

Tokyo--A tour bus guide in her 40s, a resident in the western Japan city of Osaka, has been confirmed to have pneumonia from the new coronavirus spreading from China, Japanese authorities, including the health ministry, said Wednesday.

The guide had been on a bus whose driver, a man from the western Japan prefecture of Nara, was confirmed on Tuesday to be infected with the virus. The woman, who has a foreign citizenship, is currently hospitalized, and her condition is improving.

The number of people confirmed to he infected with the new coronavirus in Japan now stands at eight. The woman told the authorities that she has not visited China or other foreign countries or regions in the past month.

According to the ministry and the government of Osaka Prefecture, the guide visited a medical institution in Tokyo on Jan. 20 and 21 as she developed a fever. But she was not diagnosed with pneumonia at the time.

As her symptoms remained, the woman visited a medical institution in Osaka Prefecture on Thursday after contacting a public health center in the city of Osaka, the capital of the prefecture. A computed tomography scan test found her having pneumonia, and she was hospitalized.

Following the confirmation of the bus driver's infection with the new virus, the tour bus guide also underwent a virus test.

The driver took the wheel of a bus that carried a total of 60 tour participants from the Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, between Tokyo and Osaka on Jan. 8-11 and on Jan. 12-16.

The tours included Nara Park and other sightseeing spots, as well as Narita International Airport in Chiba Prefecture, east of Tokyo, and Kansai International Airport in Osaka Prefecture.

Between Jan. 12 and the morning of Jan. 17, the female guide worked on a bus for transporting tourists from Wuhan. She worked with the male driver until Jan. 16.

From the afternoon of Jan. 17 to Jan. 22, she boarded a bus to carry tourists from China's Henan Province. She said she began to wear a face mask after visiting the Tokyo medical institution on Jan. 20.

The woman was quoted as saying that none of the tour participants looked obviously ill and that she had opportunities to dine with the male driver while serving the Chinese passengers during the tour.

An Osaka prefectural official said that the prefecture is not informed of any other suspected case of infection. Jiji Press