) After testing negative for the coronavirus, and a short wait at shoreside facilities, some of the Diamond Princess passengers are finally disembarking.
It will take several days to get everyone off the ship, with passengers over 83 likely to be first to go.
The cruise ship has been in quarantine for days, and in that time more than people on board has tested positive for the virus.
In a message to departing passenge rs, captain Stefano Ravera thanked the passengers for their patience and resilience.
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Were safety measures satisfactory ?: As the passengers begin to depart, questions are being raised over the Japanese government quarantine of the vessel . A Japanese infectious disease specialist who visited the quarantined cruise ship alleged in a YouTube video that there was inadequate infection control onboard.
“Inside the Diamond Princess, I was was so scared … there was no way to tell where the virus was … bureaucrats were in charge of everything, “said Kentaro Iwata, an infectious disease specialist at Kobe University in the video published Tuesday.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said Diamond Princess passengers will not be allowed back into the US for at least days.
Simply checking travelers for symptoms such as fever or cough is not enough to avoid spreading the novel coronavirus, a new report by German researchers said Tuesday.
Published in the New England Journal of Medicine, the paper assessed the screening process used on 347 people who were evacuated from Wuhan, China, to Germany.
despite going through multiple screenings once arriving in Germany, two of the travelers ultimately tested positive for the coronavirus.
“A symptom-based screening process was ineffective for detecting (the virus), “the paper said. Virus may live on surfaces for days: There is still much we don’t know about the novel co ronavirus, including how long it can survive on surfaces outside the human body. The Chinese government is taking no chances, even cleaning or destroying cash Hong Kong had barely begun returning to normalcy after more than six months of often violent unrest when the coronavirus outbreak hit in January. The semiautonomous Chinese city has confirmed cases and two deaths from the virus. Now, lingering resentments have collided with the virus to create a perfect storm – a divided society that can’t come together, facing a public health crisis that demands a unified response and a paralyzed government caught in the middle. Hints of extremism have even reemerged during the outbreak. Last month, when the government announced it would convert a building into a quarantine facility, the move sparked fears from nearby residents that the facility would bring the virus into the neighborhood. In protest, a masked group “These destructive acts have posed a grave threat to the safety of people at scene, “Hong Kong police said in a statement afterward, mirroring language used in police statements during the protests. “Police warn all rioters to stop the unlawful acts. Read the full analysis There have been 22 new cases of the novel coronavirus confirmed in South Korea, the country’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced today. According to a government news rel ease, 20 of the new cases are from the Daegu area in the southeast country. One of the infections is an 18 – year-old girl who is the daughter of a previously-confirmed patient. The total number of confirmed novel coronavirus cases in South Korea is now Presidential treatment: South Korea’s government announced Tuesday it would be sending its presidential aircraft t o Japan to repatriate its citizens who wished to return from the Diamond Princess cruise ship. Seoul isn’t the only government with repatriation plans. The UK, Canada and Australia have all announced measures to evacuate their citizens from the quarantined cruise ship, following US evacuation flights. As of this morning, there were nine South Korean passengers and five crew on board the ship, which is linked to (confirmed cases of the virus.) A second person has died of the coronavirus in the semiautonomous Chinese financial hub of Hong Kong, the local hospital authority announced this morning. The victim was a 83 – year-old old man who was diagnosed with the virus on February 20 before being admitted to Princess Margaret Hospital. There are now 68 confirmed cases of the virus across Hong Kong and two deaths. The first Hong Kong victim of the coronavirus was a – year-old man with an established illness who died on February 4 and had an underlying illness. He took the high-speed train from Hong Kong to the virus epicenter of Wuhan on January 31 and returned to the city on January 31. Hong Kong has temporarily closed some of its borders with China and stopped issuing travel permits to mainland tourists. With many questions still remaining around the rapidly-spreading coronavirus, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called Tuesday for open sharing of research on the virus. “We hope that every country that has information, this includes China, will be completely open and transparent. It took us too long to get the medical experts into country,” Pompeo said at a joint news conference in Addis Ababa. The World Health Organization has praised the Chinese government here.
Speaking Tuesday, Pompeo said that the outbreak was now a problem “of global scale.”
“We wish that (information sharing) could have happened mor e quickly. But we are hopeful that the Chinese government will increase its transparency, ”he said.
Passengers have started disembarking the Diamond Princess cruise ship following a two-week quarantine due to the novel coronavirus outbreak, according to a CNN team in Yokohama.
CNN’s Mark Phillips saw five elderly couples leave the passenger terminal on Wednesday morning local time. Once they left the terminal they got into taxis and drove away. According to the ship’s captain, disembarkation was due to start at about : 38 am Japan Standard Time – but it might take several days until all the passengers can leave. “We are in the process of delivering a letter to your staterooms, explaining the disembarkation process including the possibility of additional charter flights from various countries that you may be eligible to travel on ”, the captain said in a Tuesday announcement.
US passengers face longer wait:
As of Tuesday, a total of 674 confirmed cases of the virus had been linked to the ship.
The US Embassy in Tokyo announced Tuesday that all passengers from the Diamond Princess would need to wait d ays before they were allowed to travel to the United States. “Please be assured that the U.S. Embassy is fully aware of the difficulty of this situation and will continue to support you to the fullest extent possible, “the embassy said in a statement.
(At least 2, 
people have now died from the novel coronavirus, the vast majority of them in mainland China na’s Health Commission announced 347 new deaths since Monday, bringing the countrywide toll to 2, Cases pass 1, 10 outside China: More than 1, people have now been infected with the virus outside mainland China. Japan and Singapore are still seeing a steady rise in cases, with the Ministry of Health in Tokyo reporting seven new infections on Tuesday. Cruise ship disembarks: After weeks under quarantine in Japan, the passengers of the Diamond Princess will begin to disembark today.
It will take days to get all those onboard off the ship, but it will be a relief for the cruise goers who have tested negative for the coronavirus. More than of their fellow passengers have already been diagnosed with the virus.
But the US embassy in Tokyo said in a statement Wednesday that there was still a “high risk” of exposure and so no one was allowed to return to the US from the ship for a further days.
Canada evacuation:
Positive spin: Chinese state-run media is pushing the message that the worst of the crisis is over. In a phone call with the UK prime minister Tuesday, Chinese President Xi Jinping said there was “visible progress.” According to state news agency Xinhua, Xi said that the epidemic had now reached a “crucial time.”
US calls for transparency: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Tuesday that the US is “hopeful” that China will increase its transparency in sharing information about the virus. “We hope that every country that has information, this includes China, will be completely open and transparent. It took us too long to get the medical experts into country, ”Pompeo said at a joint news briefing in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Vaccine in the works: A vaccine for the novel coronavirus could take to 27 months, WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Tuesday during a news briefing. But a vaccine is preparing for “the worst situation,” he said, and for now, long-term preparation needs to be balanced with immediate public health solutions that contain the virus and keep the fatality rate low.
Japan has seven new cases of novel coronavirus, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare announced on Tuesday.
) About the cases : The new cases include a teen in Wakayama and a male doctor in his s who went aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship. The doctor is a member of the disaster medical assistance team.
In Japan, a total of 685 novel coronavirus cases have been confirmed, with on the Diamond Princess cruise ship and 90 outside the ship.
Virus guidelines: Amid a spike in cases, Japan’s health ministry issued guidelines Monday for people experiencing symptoms similar to the coronavirus in an effort to to prevent worried citizens from inundating hospitals by providing them with specific hotlines to call.
People who are feeling lethargic, experiencing shortness of breath, or who have had a temperature of 41 .5 Celsius or higher for four days should call nationwide healthcare centers that are in charge of responding to the outbreak, the health ministry advises.
Biggest outbreaks outside mainland China: Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong are the locations with the most diagnosed cases outside of mainland China. Singapore has infections while Hong Kong has
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