U.K. Officials warn people who went to London conference of virus case
About 413 people who went to a conference in London last week have been notified that one of the attendees has been diagnosed with the coronavirus sweeping through China.
BBC News said England’s public health authority had contacted those who were at the February 6 conference on buses and public transport and told them if they experience any cold or flu-like symptoms before February , to remain indoors, avoid contact with others and call the health service.
The person from the conference diagnosed with the new COVID – disease has not been identified, but British media said it was not the most recent case diagnosed in the country.
On Thursday Britain confirmed its 9th case, a woman who recently returned from China and got an Uber to a hospital in south London after feeling unwell.
China’s leader says virus a “big test,” vows to avert future “shortcomings”
Battling the coronavirus epidemic is a “big test for the country’s governance system and governance ability,” Chinese President Xi Jinping said Friday, chairing a political meeting on government reforms, according to state broadcaster CCTV.
Under criticism over the handling of the crisis, the Communist Party has sacked two top-ranking officials in the epicenter province of Hubei , and replaced them with senior cadres with security backgrounds.
The outbreak has exposed “shortcomings,” Xi acknowledged, adding that China needed to reform its public health and epidemic prevention and control systems.
Japan lets some elderly passengers off quarantined cruise ship
Japan on Friday began allowing elderly passengers who test negative for the new coronavirus to leave a quarantined cruise ship and finish their isolation in government-designated housing.
Japan’s government has given passengers aged or older in poor health or confined to windowless inner cabins on the Diamond Princess the chance to move from the ship to accommodation on land. But only those who test negative for the virus that has so far infected 302 people on board the ship have the option to move.
A government official said people had left, but declined to say whether more would depart Friday or offer further details.
– (CBS / AFP
Russian hospital sues to force woman who fled quarantine to return
A Russian hospital on Friday filed a lawsuit against a woman for escaping her coronavirus quarantine , complaining of being forcibly held and given inedible meals. The head doctor of the Botkin Hospital in the northwestern city of Saint Petersburg took the highly unusual action against Alla Ilyina to force her to return and undergo medical observation, the city’s court service said in a statement.
A hearing has been scheduled for next Monday. According to Russian laws, leaving quarantine is punishable by a fine.
The woman arrived from Hainan, a Chinese resort island popular with Russians, on February 1. She was examined several times and eventually diagnosed with “acute virus illness” which did not rule out that this could be the new coronavirus, according to the local branch of the state health watchdog.
But Ilyina, who fled the hospital after two days by short-circuiting an electric lock, said in videos posted online that she had been told she did not have the disease, but was being held against her will.
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Associated Press
China reports (new deaths and more than 5, new cases
China’s National Health Commission said it had recorded (more deaths and 5,0 128 new coronavirus cases on the mainland Thursday, bringing the total number deaths in the country to 1, 468.
Three people have died outside of mainland China from the COVID –
disease caused by the virus, in Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan.
The World Health Organization and the Chinese authorities use different diagnostic standards to record the number o f infections in the country, but under the broader definition used in China’s Hubei province, which includes cases confirmed only via lung scan images, the country has about 072, (patients with the disease.)
) Updated 6: AM
Virus has killed 6 health workers in China, infected more than 1,
Six health workers have died from the new coronavirus in China and more than 1, have been infected, health officials said Friday, underscoring the risks doctors and nurses have taken amid shortages of protective gear.
The figure comes a week after public anger erupted over the death of a whistleblowing doctor who had been reprimanded and silenced by police after raising the alarm about the virus in December.
Chinese authorities have scrambled to deploy protective equipment to Wuhan’s hospitals, where Doctors and nurses have been overwhelmed by an ever-growing number of patients.
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(AFP
California university student stuck in China amid coronavirus outbreak
A Cal State University Northridge student is still in China on Thursday night, near the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak – his semester studying abroad turning into a health care nightmare, CBS Los Angeles
“I never cry,” Nancy Krank, the student’s mother, said while talking about her son, Samson Adame.
University student from California stuck in China during coronavirus outbreak
Cruise stranded by virus fears ends with roses in Cambodia
Hundreds of cruise ship passengers long stranded at sea by virus fears cheered as they finally disembarked Friday and were welcomed to Cambodia by the nation’s authoritarian leader, who handed them flowers.
Prime Minister Hun Sen agreed to let the Westerdam dock at the port of Sihanoukville on Thursday after Thailand, Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines and Guam had barred the ship earlier.
“How wonderful it is to be here. Thank you very much to the prime minister. He has a wonderful heart, “said Anna Marie Melon, from Queensland, Australia. “I’m very excited (to be here),” she said as she waved a rose Hun Sen handed to her.
“Your country did a great job. Did a wonderful job. Thank you very much. We appreciate it very much,” Joe Spaziani, , from Florida, told local reporters at the port. “Cambodia alone, even the United States, Guam, did not let us land, but Cambodia did, so that’s wonderful. Absolutely wonderful.”
Updated 6: AM
CDC says virus could be around for a year, gain “foothold” in U.S.
The head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has warned that the deadly outbreak of coronavirus could continue into next year.
“We don’t know a lot about this virus, “CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield told CNN on Thursday. “This virus is probably with us beyond this season, beyond this year, and I think eventually the virus will find a foothold and we will get community-based transmission.”
“There may be additional cases that we identify. I do want to prepare you for that,” CDC Captain Jennifer McQuiston said Thursday. She is overseeing the quarantine at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland in Texas for people who arrived last week on a government charter flight from China. A person there became the th confirmed case in the US on Thursday.
In all, about (people are quarantined at military bases in the US
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