Evacuations begin from cruise in Japan hit by virus
Malaysia not to let in more passengers from Westerdam cruise after American tests positive
BEIJING: Fears are rising about the spread of the coronavirus with attention increasingly focused on cruise ships. Japan found 70 new cases including two more Indians aboard the quarantined Diamond Princess, pushing total infections in the ship to 355.
US, Hong Kong, Canada and South Korea said they are taking steps to evacuate their citizens from the ship. Malaysia, meanwhile, stopped letting passengers from the Westerdam cruise ship enter from Cambodia, after an American traveller was diagnosed with the Covid-19 in Kuala Lumpur.
Taiwan confirmed its first death from the outbreak, a man in his 60s who drove a taxi.
China’s total cases reached 68,500, with deaths rising to 1,665. Hubei province, the centre of the outbreak, had reported fewer new infections for a second straight day. The global infection total is near 70,000.
With daily death numbers on the decline, Chinese health commission spokesman Mi Feng said its efforts were beginning to show results. “The effect of the coronavirus controls is appearing,” Mi told reporters.
Increased medical support and preventive measures in Hubei had headed off more critical cases and the proportion of critical cases among confirmed cases had fallen to 21.6% on Saturday, from 32.4% on January 27, Mi said.
Mild cases were also being treated more quickly, preventing them from becoming critical, Mi said.
Nevertheless, restrictions were tightened in Hubei on Sunday with a ban on vehicles, apart from essential services, and companies told to stay shut until further notice.
Outside mainland China, there have been about 500 cases in some two dozen countries and territories, with five deaths - in Japan, Chinese-ruled Hong Kong, the
Philippines and France.
Malaysia said it won’t let any more passengers from the cruise ship Westerdam enter the country and cancelled three flights chartered by Holland America Line to bring passengers from Cambodia, where the ship had docked on February 13. An 83-year-old American woman who tested positive for the virus in Malaysia was among 145 cruise passengers who arrived in Kuala Lumpur on February 14.
After an extended Lunar New
Year holiday, China urgently needs to get back to work. But some cities remain in lockdown, streets are deserted, employees are nervous, and travel bans and quarantine orders are in place around the country.
HK: PROTESTS AGAINST QUARANTINE CENTRES
Hundreds of demonstrators rallied for a second day in Hong Kong on Sunday to protest against plans to turn some buildings into coronavirus quarantine centres.
About 100 people braved rain in the New Territories district of Fo Tan, where authorities plan to use a newly built residential development that was subsidised by the government as a quarantine centre.
PAK PARENTS PLEAD FOR STUDENTS’ RETURN
Around a hundred people called on Pakistan’s government to “bring back our children” from the locked down Chinese province of Hubei in a demonstration on Sunday in Karachi.
Pakistan’s government has so far ruled out evacuating the more than 1,000 Pakistani students in the province, home to the city of Wuhan.
State health minister Zafar Mirza said on Twitter on Friday that he and other ministers would hold a meeting for parents in Islamabad on Wednesday and that his government was working with Chinese authorities to ensure students were taken care of. “For God’s sake, we request from the government representatives please bring back our children, please listen to a mother’s grievance,” one protester, who declined to give her name, told media while bursting into tears.
The protesters chanted “bring back our children” and held up banners with the same message.
Meanwhile, Nepal evacuated 175 of its nationals from Wuhan, an official said, after protests by parents of students studying in the city.