Coronavirus outbreak: 79 new confirmed cases on quarantined cruise ship in Japan

The total number of infected onboard the quarantined cruise ship Diamond Princess has risen to 621 after Japan recently announced 79 more confirmed cases on the ship. According to reports, Japan's health ministry was carrying out tests on passengers and crews that are quarantined on board the ship. The Diamond Princess is currently docked in Yokohoma, a port city close to Tokyo and the passengers on the cruise ship began leaving after being tested negative for the coronavirus. 

According to reports, around 500 passengers were allowed to leave the ship after the 14-day quarantine period came to an end. The passengers leaving the ship also received an official certificate stating that the concerned individuals did not pose any threat and had tested negative for the infection of the virus. As per reports, a few countries were also not happy with the quarantine process onboard the Diamond Princess and started bringing back their citizens on board chartered planes. 

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On February 17, more than 300 US nationals were evacuated even though 14 of them had tested positive for the virus. South Korea also evacuated six citizens to Seoul. Canada, Australia, Hong Kong have also announced that they will evacuate all of their citizens from the ship. 

The death toll for the novel Coronavirus has surpassed 2,000 in mainland China. Over 136 new fatalities in mainland China have been confirmed in the past 24 hours, China’s state health committee officials confirmed. The confirmed cases of COVID-19 have soared by 1,749 and the total global figure has reached 74,185 as of February 19. 

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Coronavirus cases in 20 countries

First detected in the city of Wuhan, in Hubei Province of China, the virus outbreak has now spread across 20 countries since December 2019. About 1,701 people have recovered from the disease, whereas, a total of 12,552 coronavirus patients have by now been discharged from hospitals. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has dubbed the virus as COVID-19.

The death toll for n-Coronavirus has surpassed the tolls from the SARS epidemic of 2002-03. The origin of the virus has been linked to the local seafood market of Wuhan, which is the capital of Hubei province in central China. Few of the countries currently affected by the virus include Singapore, Thailand, Japan, India, and the United States.

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