China virus cases surge in revised tally
BEIJING — The number of new cases and deaths from the coronavirus outbreak in China surged as Hubei, the province at the center of the epidemic, revised its method for counting infections.
Fatalities in Hubei climbed by 242, bringing China’s death toll to at least 1,355. The number of infections jumped by 14,840, sending the total number of cases in China to about 60,000.
The Hubei national health commission said it would now start including cases confirmed by “clinical diagnosis,” which refers to using CT imaging scans to diagnose patients.
Previously, many patients with pneumonia-like symptoms found via CT scans could not be diagnosed as positive without an additional nucleic acid test.
The abrupt spike reversed the declining growth trend of previous days that had left health officials hopeful the outbreak was plateauing.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, meanwhile, promised tax cuts and other aid to industry as the ruling Communist Party tries to limit the mounting damage to the economy. And in Japan, 39 new cases were confirmed on a cruise ship quarantined at Yokohama, bringing the total to 174 on the Diamond Princess.
A look at the latest developments in the crisis, which started in December in the city of Wuhan:
Cruise ship woes
A cruise ship turned away by four Asian and Pacific governments due to virus fears anchored Thursday off Cambodia for health checks on its 2,200 passengers and crew.
The Westerdam was unwelcome elsewhere even though operator Holland America Line said no cases of the COVID-19 viral illness have been confirmed among the 1,455 passengers and 802 crew members on board.
Rising infection cases on board a quarantined cruise ship in Japan — likely evidence passengers are spreading the virus to one another — is raising concerns about their safety and sparking anger among the thousands still confined.
There are now 174 infections aboard Carnival Corp.’s Diamond Princess, the largest infection cluster outside China. The surging numbers are fueling concerns that rather than keeping passengers safe, the quarantine is allowing the virus to spread through the ship. There were 39 new cases announced Wednesday, including 10 members of the crew.
“The quarantine is working to keep the virus offshore — it’s obvious the quarantine is not working on the ship,” said Stanley Deresinski, a Stanford University professor of infectious disease and a specialist at a hospital connected to the school. “With these infection rates, it’s very likely that there’s ongoing transmission.”
Among U.S. evacuees
A second case of COVID-19 has been confirmed in the U.S. among evacuees from China, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Wednesday.
The person was aboard a flight from the city of Wuhan that arrived at Marine Corps Air Station
Miramar in Southern California last week, the CDC said.
The patient was in isolation at a San Diego hospital, UC San Diego Health confirmed.
Also in isolation is a woman who was mistakenly released because of a mislabeled sample that hadn’t been tested for coronavirus. She was returned to the hospital on Monday after testing positive for the virus.
She was expected to make a full recovery.
The two patients “arrived on different planes and were housed in separate facilities; there are no epidemiologic links between them,“a CDC statement said.
A third person whose test results are pending also is hospitalized in isolation.
Hundreds of people, including U.S. State Department employees and their families, have arrived at military bases in California, Texas and Nebraska aboard chartered flights from Wuhan, a city of 11 million that is the epicenter for the virus. The only confirmed evacuee cases were at Miramar, where about 200 people are being held under quarantine until all are cleared.
Economic fallout
China is struggling to restart its economy after the annual Lunar New Year holiday was extended to try to curb the spread of the virus. Traffic remained light in Beijing, and many people were still working at home.
Xi’s announcement of tax cuts came as companies face increasing losses because of the closing of factories, offices, shops and other businesses in the most sweeping anti-disease measures ever imposed.
Elsewhere around the world, DBS bank in Singapore cleared its office, telling 300 employees to work from home after it learned that an employee had been infected. The city-state has 50 confirmed cases.