Two more cases of the new virus in Tokyo

Tokyo city officials on Friday said they had confirmed two more cases of COVID-19 that originated in China. Jun Naito, Director of Health and Welfare Bureau of Tokyo Metropolitan Government, said the cases were confirmed in a taxi union worker and a pleasure boat crew member.

The two new cases brings Japan's total to 254.

Tokyo officials had announced Thursday night that a male taxi driver in his 70s tested positive for the virus.

Around 100 taxi drivers and their families had a New Year party in January on the pleasure boat on which one of the confirmed cases worked.

The pleasure boat that operates on rivers in downtown Tokyo was rented out that day, but its crew members might have had contact with the virus when the boat carried Chinese tourists, officials said.

They are investigating further details about possible infection routes.

Japan's confirmation of the new cases comes a day after it reported its first death from the virus.

Its other cases include 218 passengers from a cruise ship that has been quarantined in Yokohama.

More than 560 cases have been confirmed outside mainland China and three deaths, one each in the Philippines and Hong Kong and now the Japanese victim - a woman in her 80s.

Health officials are investigating how she got infected.