New coronavirus cases in Japan rise to 14

January 31, 2020

Tokyo--The number of confirmed cases in Japan of the new coronavirus spreading from the Chinese city of Wuhan rose to 14 on Thursday.

A man in his 50s, who has a foreign citizenship and lives in Mie Prefecture, central Japan, and a Chinese woman in her 20s, a resident in the western Japan city of Kyoto, were confirmed to have the coronavirus, the Mie and Kyoto prefectural governments respectively said on the day.

The health ministry announced the infection of a female tour guide in her 30s, who is from China.

All of the three people had stayed in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei Province, according to the authorities.

The man in Mie developed a fever last Saturday after returning to Japan on Jan. 13 from Wuhan, where he stayed from Dec. 24 last year. He was taken to a hospital by ambulance on Monday, but returned to his home because he did not show symptoms of pneumonia.

His infection was confirmed when he visited a hospital again on Wednesday. He is currently hospitalized, and his condition is improving.

The woman in Kyoto, a student, visited Wuhan on Jan. 16-22, Kyoto prefectural officials said. She did not complain of sickness when she returned to Japan from Wuhan. But she started to show symptoms such as a cough on Jan. 23 and was sent to a medical institution on Tuesday.

The woman is in a stable condition now and staying at her home.

According to the health ministry, the tour guide, a resident in China's Hunan Province, arrived in Japan on Jan. 20 after staying in Wuhan on the previous day, and was on duty until last Sunday.

The woman visited a medical institution in Tokyo several times after she developed a fever and started coughing last Friday.

The ministry said earlier on Thursday that three of the 206 Japanese nationals who came back from Hubei on Wednesday aboard the first government-chartered flight for the evacuation operations were confirmed to have the new coronavirus.

Meanwhile, 26 of the 210 Japanese who returned home on the second government-chartered plane on Thursday were hospitalized due to coughing and other symptoms. The ministry is working to confirm whether they are infected with the new coronavirus. Jiji Press