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EPIDEMICS
Americans arrive home from virus-infected cruise ship
By Virginie Goubier, with Helen Roxburgh in Beijing
Travis Air Force Base, United States (AFP) Feb 17, 2020

13 US citizens at 'high risk' of coronavirus being treated in Nebraska
Washington (AFP) Feb 17, 2020 - Thirteen US citizens deemed "high risk" for the deadly new coronavirus are being treated at a federally designated facility in the University of Nebraska following their evacuation from a cruise ship in Japan, officials said Monday.

A total of 338 Americans were flown home from the Diamond Princess cruise ship off Japan's Yokohama, touching down first at Travis Air Force Base in California shortly before midnight Sunday.

The second flight arrived early Monday at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Texas.

"A select number of high risk patients were transported onward from both locations using those same aircraft to Omaha, Nebraska for care at the University of Nebraska," Health and Human Services official Robert Kadlec told reporters.

State Department official William Walters added these included six passengers from the base in California and seven from the base in Texas.

Some of these included spouses and it was not clear how many had tested positive for the COVID-19 virus.

Shortly before the flights left Japan, US officials were informed that 14 of the passengers, tested days earlier, had received positive results.

Some patients were also being treated at hospitals near the California base.

The medical staff in Nebraska are re-testing the cases for themselves, after those patients were placed in isolated areas of the two planes for the journey home.

"Until we're done with testing they'll be self-isolated to their room," Shelly Schwedhelm, an official at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, said in a separate briefing.

She added that 12 of the patients were in a quarantine unit while one was in a bio-containment facility -- one of three selected in the country to care for US citizens evacuated from Africa with the Ebola virus.

Forty other US citizens who had been on the ship and had previously tested positive were being treated in Japanese hospitals and were not allowed to fly.

Beyond those brought out on the latest flights, Walters, the State Department official, added that the government was continuing to track the movements of 60 US nationals still in Japan.

The government is also following 92 US citizens who remain on the Westerdam cruise ship off Cambodia as well as 260 more in hotels in Phnom Penh.

"Roughly 300 American citizens have departed Cambodia but only after testing by the government of Cambodia's ministry of health," he added.

Impoverished Cambodia is a staunch Chinese ally with a threadbare medical system.

A US individual in a hospital in Kuala Lumpur is so far the only person to have tested positive for the virus from the Westerdam.

There have so far been 15 confirmed cases in the US, according to the latest tally by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

More than 300 Americans rescued from a cruise ship quarantined off Japan because of the new coronavirus arrived back in the United States Monday for two more weeks of medical seclusion, as concern rose over passengers who dispersed around the globe after leaving another ship in Cambodia.

The COVID-19 virus death toll exceeds 1,800 in China, where it has infected more than 72,000. Elsewhere, hundreds more have been infected and the virus has sparked panic buying, economic jitters as well as the cancellation of high-profile sporting and cultural events.

With fresh cases emerging daily in Japan, the government has advised citizens to avoid mass gatherings, and has canceled public events -- including celebrations in central Tokyo for the Emperor's birthday and the amateur portion of the city marathon, affecting around 38,000 runners.

In the Chinese capital Beijing, municipal authorities have ordered citizens arriving in the city to self-quarantine for 14 days, the presumed incubation period of the virus.

State media said China may postpone its annual parliamentary session, which has been held in March for the last 35 years.

Outside China, the biggest cluster of infections is from the Diamond Princess cruise ship off Japan's Yokohama, where an additional 99 cases were revealed on Monday.

That brought the total to 454 diagnosed despite passengers being confined to their cabins during a 14-day quarantine.

As criticism grew of Japan's handling of the ship crisis, governments are scrambling to repatriate their citizens. Canada, Italy, Hong Kong -- and the latest country, Australia -- were poised to follow the United States in removing nationals from the vessel.

The first US flight touched down at Travis Air Force Base in California shortly before midnight Sunday, followed by the second early Monday at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Texas.

Before they boarded the flights, US officials were informed that 14 of the passengers tested days earlier had received positive results. Authorities allowed them to fly but isolated them from other passengers in a "special containment area".

US officials deemed 13 of the cases "high risk" for COVID-19 and sent them to the University of Nebraska Medical Center for treatment and re-testing.

All repatriated passengers must undergo a two-week quarantine period on US soil.

One American traveler, Sarah Arana, told AFP before leaving the ship that she was ready to go because a proper quarantine was needed.

"This was not it," she said.

- 'My health is fine' -

Some Americans on the Diamond Princess declined their government's offer.

"My health is fine. And my two-week quarantine is almost over," tweeted Matt Smith, questioning why he should want to leave.

Forty other US passengers tested positive for the virus and were taken to hospitals in Japan, said Anthony Fauci, a senior official at the National Institutes for Health.

In China, authorities have placed about 56 million people in Hubei under quarantine, virtually sealing off the province from the rest of the country in an unprecedented effort to contain the virus.

Chinese health officials on Monday urged patients who have recovered from COVID-19 to donate blood plasma which, they said, can be used to treat others.

New cases outside the epicenter region have been declining for the last 13 days. There were 115 fresh cases outside Hubei announced Monday -- sharply down from nearly 450 a week ago.

Chinese authorities have pointed to the slowing rise in cases as proof their measures are working.

The apparent drop in new cases "must be interpreted very cautiously," World Health Organization head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Monday.

Concerns remain about global transmission, but WHO officials cautioned against "blanket measures", when the virus is affecting "a very, very tiny" proportion of people outside Hubei.

Fears are mounting over passengers on one vessel, the Westerdam, who all received a clean bill of health when they disembarked in Cambodia -- a staunch Beijing ally with a threadbare medical system.

An 83-year-old American woman who disembarked was stopped by authorities in Malaysia over the weekend when she was detected with a fever and later diagnosed as having the virus.

There were more than 2,200 passengers and crew on the ship when it docked in Sihanoukville, many of whom have now dispersed around the globe. Almost 1,000 were still aboard.

- Battering tourism -

With the virus battering tourism and disrupting global supply chains, experts are fretting about the toll it could take on a fragile global economy.

IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva said there could be a cut of around 0.1-0.2 percentage points to global growth but stressed there was "still a great deal of uncertainty."

On Monday US tech giant Apple, citing disruption from the virus, said it did not expect to meet its revenue guidance for the March quarter.

The company said worldwide iPhone supply would be "temporarily constrained" and that demand in China had been affected.

Apple had forecast revenue of $63 billion to $67 billion for the second quarter to March.

The global spread of the new coronavirus: Where is it?
Beijing (AFP) Feb 17, 2020 - The new coronavirus that emerged in central China at the end of last year has now killed nearly 1,800 people and spread around the world.

The latest figures from China show there are more than 70,500 people infected in the country.

Outside mainland China, there have been about 900 infections reported in nearly 30 locations. Taiwan, the Philippines, Hong Kong and Japan have each reported one fatality, while France on Saturday announced the first death outside Asia, an elderly Chinese tourist.

Here are the areas where COVID-19, the virus's official designation, has been confirmed:

- CHINA -

As of Monday, 70,548 people had been infected across China, the majority in and around Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province, where the outbreak was first reported.

Most of the 1,770 who have died in mainland China were in that region, but officials have confirmed multiple deaths elsewhere, including the capital Beijing.

The fatalities include a US citizen.

- ASIA-PACIFIC -

Cruise ship Diamond Princess, quarantined off Japan: 454, plus a quarantine officer. (Some American citizens were flown to the United States, where they are to undergo a further 14-day quarantine.)

Singapore: 77

Japan: 60, including death of one infected woman

Hong Kong: 58, including one death

Thailand: 35

South Korea: 30

Malaysia: 22

Taiwan: 20, including one death

Vietnam: 16

Australia: 15

Macau: 10

India: 3

Philippines: 3, including one death

Nepal: 1

Sri Lanka: 1

Cambodia: 1

- NORTH AMERICA -

United States: 29

Canada: 8

- EUROPE -

Germany: 16

France: 12, including one death

Britain: 9

Italy: 3

Russia: 2

Spain: 2

Finland: 1

Sweden: 1

Belgium: 1

- MIDDLE EAST -

United Arab Emirates: 9

- AFRICA -

Egypt: 1


Related Links
Epidemics on Earth - Bird Flu, HIV/AIDS, Ebola


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Researchers both public and private have launched efforts to combat the novel coronavirus that has already infected tens of thousands of people in China, and profit isn't their only motivation. The big players? Researchers are working in three main areas: developing diagnostic tests, developing a vaccine, and testing of anti-virals as a treatment for those infected. Major public research laboratories such as the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), non-profit foundations like the Pasteur ... read more

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