COVID-19 in Japan and Japanese waters

[Pushka]

I don't think it's fake news because the New York Times is reporting it: American Woman Who Left Cruise Ship Tests Positive for Coronavirus edit - that is the positive test, not the Diamond connection - I haven't read that on any credible site.

Yes, the couple who arrived to publicity at the airport on Saturday full of great celebration had a follow up publicity yesterday saying now they were worried. They were in the media during the cruise as he is a well known former footballer and a profile disability advocate in SA. I’m not sure the Health authorities here know what to do - hopefully they will be put into home quarantine but it’s now gone very quiet on the issue. But they had 24 hours here before this all came to light and flew on MAS I think from KL to ADL.

 

[trevella]

Tokyo Marathon is scheduled for March 1 with around 40,000 entrants. Organisers are now talking about cutting entry by non-elite athletes, possibly to zero.

 

[trevella]

One reported infection for a worker at the Kanagawa hospital that had Japan's fatality.

 

[trevella]

A Japanese Ministry of Health employee has tested positive after spending time on the Diamond Princess from February 11 collecting information and doing other liaison work.

Came down with a fever on February 14, tested positive on February 16.

 

[p--and--t]

A Japanese Ministry of Health employee has tested positive after spending time on the Diamond Princess from February 11 collecting information and doing other liaison work.

Came down with a fever on February 14, tested positive on February 16.

Some of this is incredulous!

If informed health department officials and GPs and hospital staff etc can't avoid getting it when they are in the know on the practices to employ...what hope do innocent passengers floating around in the ocean on holiday with limited access to news and facilities have who didn't even know what a corona-virus was?

 

[tgh]

The virulence is interesting ; few infections in some places and rampant infections elsewhere
I don't get it.

 

[trevella]

NHK's summary of 781 cases outside China:

Japan: 414 including 355 on the Diamond Princess.

Singapore: 75
Hong Kong: 57
Thailand: 34
South Korea: 30
Malaysia: 22
Taiwan: 20
Germany, Vietnam: 16
Australia, US: 15
France: 12
Macao: 10
UK, UAE: 9
Canada: 7

12 others with three or fewer.

 

[trevella]

The virulence is interesting ; few infections in some places and rampant infections elsewhere
I don't get it.

few *reported* or *detected* infections in some places

And "rampant" doesn't seem accurate outside the Diamond Princess.

 

[Himeno]

Japan: 414 including 355 on the Diamond Princess.

That should be listed as Japan: 59, Other: 355, like the majority of tracking lists it as.

Are infected people transferred off the ship into Japanese hospitals counted in that 355 Diamond Princess number?

 

[trevella]

Public participation in the first Emperor's Birthday ceremony of the Reiwa Era (February 23)—which basically boils down to entry to the palace grounds—is to be cancelled out of COVID-19 concerns.

 

[trevella]

That should be listed as Japan: 59, Other: 355, like the majority of tracking lists it as.

Are infected people transferred off the ship into Japanese hospitals counted in that 355 Diamond Princess number?

*should* is a matter for debate. Feel free to separate it out as you like (preferably somewhere else).

NHK itself says 「日本がクルーズ船の乗客・乗員の355人を含む414人となっています。」which is basically what I said, having already noted that it was "NHK's summary".

355 is people who were originally passengers or crew, and doesn't include the one Kanagawa government office, one national government official, or the one quarantine officer.

 

[Pushka]

I thought that Japan had not wanted the DP passenger number to be included in their statistics. All positive passengers have been transferred to hospital facilities in Japan.

 

[Anna]

40 US citizens were not evacuated from Diamond Princess due to either having symptoms or testing positive (which depending on which source you read, I'm not sure all journalists appreciate fine distinctions like that) and then I saw one report that said those 40 may be additional to the 355 already in hospital from Diamond Princess - might that be correct? Or is it just the media getting confused and/or hoping to beef up the story?

 

[Pushka]

Australians are to be evacuated on Wednesday and put into isolation for 14 days in Darwin.

 

[trevella]

Hire-car driver who tested positive in Tokyo yesterday worked 11 days from January 22 through February 9 and had a total of 34 passengers, all of whom were Japanese. Started to feel unwell from late January but "soldiered on". Says he has absolutely no idea where he might have caught it.

 

[moa999]

40 US citizens were not evacuated from Diamond Princess due to either having symptoms or testing positive

Or deciding not to go
Eg. Matthew Smith who has been live tweeting Matthew Smith (@mjswhitebread) | Twitter

The flight home doesn't exactly look comfortable, and the US reportedly didn't test anyone before allowing them on the plane, so you've broken a ship isolation to possibly sit next to someone who has the virus.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1229209385055862785

 

[Pushka]

Or deciding not to go
Eg. Matthew Smith who has been live tweeting Matthew Smith (@mjswhitebread) | Twitter

The flight home doesn't exactly look comfortable, and the US reportedly didn't test anyone before allowing them on the plane, so you've broken a ship isolation to possibly sit next to someone who has the virus.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1229209385055862785

I can’t imagine that Japan will simply let them walk down the gangway and into the general population.

 

[trevella]

Four more positives in Wakayama. Three are family members of hospitalised patients who had previously tested positive, one is a mystery man in his 50s who hasn't been to the ground-zero hospital since mid-January.

Nine Wakayama cases all up now.

 

[trevella]

The national government has directed all prefectural governments to have all pneumonia cases requiring hospitalisation (plus people meeting certain other conditions) tested for the new coronavirus.

So basically where Singapore was as of early this month.

 

[Anna]

I can’t imagine that Japan will simply let them walk down the gangway and into the general population.

Interestingly Matthew Smith is saying that the Japanese govt have said there will be no further quarantine in Japan after they are allowed off the ship.