COVID-19 in Japan and Japanese waters

[Pushka]

Tested positive. A female taxi driver in her 60s.

The original person had disembarked by 25th.

 

[trevella]

Two more Tokyo taxi driver infections with links to the first one.

 

[trevella]

Two more Tokyo taxi driver infections with links to the first one.

Correction: Two more people infected with links to the first taxi driver.

One is a taxi union worker.

The other was working on a boat where the first taxi driver participated in a New Year's party with around 80 other people.

Ten of those people are now being "investigated" (not necessarily "tested") after displaying various symptoms.

The boat worker had also been in contact with people from Hubei.

Roughly 100 people reportedly being tested for having been at the party or in close contact with someone who was.

 

[trevella]

Summarizing today, with no Diamond Princess results announced.

Seven new domestic cases.

Two with links to the Tokyo taxi driver.
An Okinawan taxi driver who had carried four Japanese passengers from the Diamond Princess on Feb 1.
One in Wakayama where the surgeon tested positive yesterday.
One in Aichi, was in Hawaii until Feb 7 and had basically been at home since then.
One in Hokkaido (in the ICU), no record of having travelled overseas.
One from the third charter flight home from Wunan.

A lot of tests have been initiated as a result.

 

[trevella]

A male in his 30s has tested positive after driving a positive-testing patient from the Diamond Princess to hospital on Feb 10.

 

[Pushka]

A male in his 30s has tested positive after driving a positive-testing patient from the Diamond Princess to hospital on Feb 10.

How did that happen? They used ambulances and the ship was already in Quarantine and full haz suits.

 

[trevella]

11 of the 218 who have tested positive on the Diamond Princess are now classified as "serious", along with one other who has yet to test positive.

11 people opted to leave the ship yesterday and move to Saitama under the "80+ etc." exemption.

The government will now be slower to disclose new test results as it moves into full (information) containment mode.

 

[Pushka]

11 of the 218 who have tested positive on the Diamond Princess are now classified as "serious", along with one other who has yet to test positive.

11 people opted to leave the ship yesterday and move to Saitama under the "80+ etc." exemption.

The government will now be slower to disclose new test results as it moves into full (information) containment mode.

That’s probably not going to help with the mental health of the people on the ship. And the people onboard know that this is exactly what is happening and it’s not good.
One person who was taken off early with a positive test and separated from his wife on their honeymoon, has tested successively negative a few times and now positive. He has apparently refused medical treatment because he has lost confidence in the tests and is otherwise well albeit in hospital because that is where he is being kept.

 

[trevella]

A colleague of the Wakayama surgeon has also tested positive, making it two doctors and one patient at this point.

 

[trevella]

US government reportedly preparing to take US citizens home from the Diamond Princess on two planes as early as tomorrow (February 16):

The US State Department will evacuate some American citizens and their families aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship, the biggest cluster of coronavirus infections outside China, the Wall Street Journal reports.

About 380 people will be offered seats on two evacuation flights from Japan back to the United States, the Journal said, citing an official of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

 

[Pushka]

The Wall Street journal has quoted that but the US Embassy website

Updates on COVID-19 in Japan | U.S. Embassy & Consulates in Japan

April 2 In a video message to U.S. citizens in Japan, Charge d’Affaires Joe Young discusses the Japanese government’s recent travel restrictions as well as where Americans can get accurate and updated information about COVID-19. March 27 Listen to CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield’s interview...

jp.usembassy.gov

hasn’t updated yet so hopefully it is as it seems. Interesting to see how other countries react, esp UK and Australia. They will be sent to Air Force bases with further assessment and I did read may face another quarantine period.

U.S. to send plane to Japan to evacuate Americans on cruise ship; 67 more infections reported on board

The U.S. government will send a chartered aircraft to evacuate its citizens from the virus-hit Diamond Princess cruise ship which is currently quarantined in Yokohama port.

www.japantimes.co.jp

 

[trevella]

A colleague of the Wakayama surgeon has also tested positive, making it two doctors and one patient at this point.

The wife of the second doctor has tested positive along with another patient, taking the total to five for the Wakayama hospital cluster.

 

[trevella]

Plan is for the Americans to board two planes at Haneda late tomorrow night after traveling there by bus, with the flights to leave in the early hours of January 17 Japan time.

 

[Pushka]

And they face another 14 day quarantine period in the US

https://japan2.usembassy.gov/pdfs/alert-20200215-diamond-princess.pdf

 

[trevella]

Eight new infections confirmed in Tokyo, including seven with links to the taxi driver.

Post automatically merged: Feb 15, 2020

67 new infections confirmed on the cruise ship, taking the total to 285.

Initial "risky" group tested was 273, so hopefully that puts that issue to bed.

 

[Pushka]

Eight new infections confirmed in Tokyo, including seven with links to the taxi driver.

Post automatically merged: Feb 15, 2020

67 new infections confirmed on the cruise ship, taking the total to 285.

Initial "risky" group tested was 273, so hopefully that puts that issue to bed.

From your research do you think that the quarantine onboard was successful?

 

[trevella]

"Things have changed", says Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare Katsunobu Kato.

 

[trevella]

Of the eight Tokyo cases today, one had nothing to do with the taxi driver.

The way it gets reported is along the lines of:

Feb 5: visited "Medical Institution A"
Feb 10: visited "Medical Institution B" and got on a bullet train
Feb 12: still felt awful, visited "Medical Institution C", was sent to "Medical Institution D" and hospitalised there
Feb 14: tested
Feb 15: positive result confirmed

Compare and contrast with how open Singapore has been about who's been where.

 

[trevella]

70 more from the Diamond Princess, taking the total to 355.

 

[trevella]

Canada also taking its citizens home from the Diamond Princess by charter plane. Again, they will also face a 14-day quarantine period at a military base.

An official announcement is coming about the 19th. I don't like this guy's chances:

“Our greatest desire at this point is to maintain the quarantine that the Japanese health officials have established,” Smith said, “then get a test for the virus at the end of that quarantine so we can establish with relative certainty that we are not infected and be free to go."