Iran today reported three more COVID-19 cases today, as the number of new infections jumped in South Korea and in Japan, amid several new Diamond Princess developments, including the first two deaths and a US government agency clash over the evacuation of infected passengers.
Meanwhile, China reported 394 new cases of the new coronavirus illness, a sharp drop that follows a case definition change that includes only lab-tested positives among the confirmed cases.
Doctor infected in Iran
Following a report yesterday of its first two cases, both fatal, Iran's health ministry today reported three more. Two are in Qom, the same city where the first two cases were confirmed, and one is in Arak, located about 92 miles southwest of that city.
All three patients are Iranian citizens, and the ministry's machine-translated statement said the patient in Arak is a doctor. It said health officials have proposed limiting visits to Qom's holy shrine and other pilgrimage sites. Among other measures, the health ministry has also advised canceling seminars and conferences in Qom.
A health official was quoted in Iran's state news agency as saying the patients whose illnesses and deaths were announced yesterday had not had any contact with foreigners or people who had traveled to China, Al Jazeera reported today. It added that an advisor to Iran's health ministry said testing is under way on suspected cases in several other cities, and that the state news agency reported that two people with suspected infections have been quarantined in Babol, located in northern Iran.
Many Korea cases part of church cluster
Since yesterday, South Korea has reported 53 more cases, raising its total to 104, and the country also reported its first death from the virus, according to the latest reports from the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. South Korea now has the most cases outside China, excluding the Diamond Princess cluster.
Of the 22 most recent cases, 21 were in Daegu and Gyeongbuk, and 1 was in Seoul. Five appear to be part of a church cluster, 1 is from New Oriental Hospital in Seoul, and 13, including the death, are linked to Qingdao Daenam Hospital.
A BBC report said 30 of the 53 new cases are linked to the church, described as a sect, in Daegu, South Korea's fourth-largest city, with a population of about 2.5 million. It also noted that the COVID-19 death occurred in a 63-year-old man who was hospitalized in Cheongdo, where 15 people at the facility had tested positive for the virus.
Daegu is also home to a US Army garrison, which has restricted access and closed schools and nonessential businesses for a second day, Stars and Stripes reported today. It said US service members will be allowed to wear face masks while in uniform. So far, no cases have been detected in US personnel.
At a World Health Organization (WHO) media telebriefing today, Oliver Morgan, PhD, who directs the WHO's health emergency information and risk assessment department, said the rising numbers in South Korea mainly involve several clusters linked to known cases.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, PhD, the WHO's director-general, said that, with the measures South Korea is taking, the disease spread is manageable.
US officials clashed over cruise ship passenger flight
Japan's health ministry today reported two deaths in passengers who had been on the Diamond Princess, both of whom were in their 80s and were hospitalized on shore. Both were Japanese, one a man with underlying health conditions from Kanagawa and the other a woman from Tokyo.
In another development related to the ship, the health ministry said today that two government officials have been infected following their work on the ship, one from the health ministry and another from the cabinet secretary.
In other cruise ship developments, the Washington Post, citing unnamed people involved in the discussions, reported today that US government officials on Feb 16 wrestled with whether to allow 14 infected Americans to fly home on a chartered jet with a group of 300 American evacuees. It said officials received word that test results were positive for 14 people shortly before the plane was to leave Japan.
Officials from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) opposed mixing the infected and uninfected people, because of the increased transmission risk, and the State Department had announced earlier that infected people would not be allowed to board the planes.
But the State Department and a Trump Administration official ended up overruling the CDC's advice. The infected travelers didn't have symptoms, and the plane had a plastic-lined enclosure to separate the passengers. According to the report, the CDC insisted that the agency not be mentioned in the news release lest people think that the infected people flew with the others based on CDC advice.
Japan's health ministry also reported 10 more cases in seven different locations, raising its overall total—not including the cruise ship—to 84, according to a summary from the country's health ministry. The locations include Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture, Sapporo, Hokkaido, Okinawa prefecture, Tokyo, and Nagoya.
The US CDC yesterday issued a travel watch for Japan owing to multiple instances of community spread reported in the country. A travel watch, the CDC's lowest travel advisory level, urges visitors to practice usual precautions, such as avoiding sick people and washing hands frequently.
China cases appear to slow
China's National Health Commission today reported 394 new cases, down sharply from the 1,739 reported yesterday, which follows the country's announcement yesterday that it will no longer include clinically diagnosed COVID-19 cases with the lab-confirmed numbers. The overall total is now 74,576.
The country also reported 114 more deaths and 113 fewer serious illnesses, putting those respective totals at 2,118 and 11,864.
In other developments inside China, government officials in Hubei province, the epicenter of the outbreak, announced that work suspension has been extended to Mar 11, Reuters reported. Schools will also remain shuttered, and the only firms allowed to resume work are those involved in outbreak control and public services.
Singapore reports 1 new case
Singapore's health ministry today reported 1 more case, raising the country's total to 85. It said contact tracing is under way to identify any links to earlier cases or travel to China. The country has linked all but 9 cases to clusters or earlier cases.
In its daily situation report today, the WHO said that over the past 24 hours it has received reports of 149 new cases outside of China, raising the total to 1,073, 8 of them fatal, from 26 countries. Of those, 621 are from the Diamond Princess.
