23 Americans on cruise ship in Japan contract novel coronavirus
Over 40,000 people have contracted the novel coronavirus and 910 of them have died.Passengers line up to leave the World Dream cruise ship at Kai Tak Cruise Terminal on Feb. 9 in Hong Kong, China. 3,600 passengers and crew members quarantined on World Dream cruise ship are finally allowed to disembark after all 1,800 crew members test negative for coronavirus as vessel has been docked at Kai Tak Cruise Terminal for more than four days.
-
A drone operated by the Suwon municipal government flies around Changyong Middle School spraying disinfectant as a preventative measures against coronavirus outbreak , in Suwon, South Korea on Feb. 18
-
A man wearing a face mask walks past a statue with a face mask, following an outbreak of the novel coronavirus, in Beijing, China on Feb. 18
-
The air force sent the medical workers and supplies to Wuhan at the 4th time with transport aircrafts to fight against the novel coronavirus pneumonia in Wuhan on Feb. 17.
-
This undated electron microscope image made available by the U.S. National Institutes of Health in February 2020 shows the Novel Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, yellow, emerging from the surface of cells, pink, cultured in the lab. Also known as 2019-nCoV, the virus causes COVID-19. The sample was isolated from a patient in the U.S.
North Korea 'clearly lying' about coronavirus cases, expert says
North Korea maintains that the coronavirus has not reached its borders, but one expert says "there is no way" that's true.Unverified reports about a quarantined person allegedly being executed by the country after visiting a public bath have emerged, as well as a potential first confirmed case, but the government remains steadfast in denying that the virus has reached its borders, which many experts have cast doubt on.

Supplement Social Security with these 19 tricks
Ad Microsoft
A woman wearing a protective mask cycles past graffiti of a mask in Shanghai, China on Feb. 17, as the country is hit by coronavirus outbreak.
-
A devotee wearing a surgical mask prays at the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple in the Chinatown, Singapore on, Feb. 17. The Singapore government to introduce COVID-19 relief package in budget.
-
A sign advertising surgical masks is displayed in the Chinatown, Singapore, on Feb. 17. Due to high demand there is a shortage of masks across the country, the number of masks a person can purchase are limited by different shopkeepers.
-
People wear face masks and plastic raincoats as a protection from COVID-19 coronavirus at Shanghai railway station, in China on Feb. 17.
-
A young woman wearing a protective facemask, takes a ferry to cross the Chao Praya River in Bangkok on Feb. 17.
-
Nepalese arriving from coronavirus-stricken Chinese city of Wuhan gather at the quarantine center after their arrival in Bhaktapur, Nepal on Feb. 17.

Expert: This is the #1 Cash Back Card on the Market
Ad Microsoft
Buses carrying American evacuees from the Diamond Princess cruise ship leave the runway at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland on Feb. 17 in San Antonio, Texas.
-
Passengers still on board the MS Westerdam cruise ship wait to allowed to leave while the ship is still docked in Sihanoukville, Cambodia on Feb. 17.
-
A nurse wearing a protective suit is seen at the Fever Clinic, where COVID-19 coronavirus patients will be quarantined, in Shanghai on Feb. 17.
-
A woman wearing a protective face mask browses a shop, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on Feb. 17.

Officers wearing protective suits are seen near an airplane prepared for the U.S. passengers of the cruise ship Diamond Princess, where dozens of passengers were tested positive for coronavirus, at Haneda airport in Tokyo, Japan, on Feb. 17.
China sees rise in new virus cases, death toll rises by 105
BEIJING (AP) — Chinese authorities on Monday reported a slight upturn in new virus cases and 105 more deaths for a total of 1,770 since the outbreak began two months ago. The 2,048 new cases followed three days of declines but was up by just 39 cases from the previous day's figure. Another 10,844 people have recovered from COVID-19, a disease caused by the new coronavirus, and have been discharged from hospitals, according to Monday's figures.The 2,048 new cases followed three days of declines but was up by just 39 cases from the previous day's figure. Another 10,844 people have recovered from COVID-19, a disease caused by the new coronavirus, and have been discharged from hospitals, according to Monday's figures.
-
Passengers of the cruise ship Diamond Princess board their plane, on Feb. 17.

The Hottest Stocks for 2020 and Beyond
Ad Microsoft
People wearing protective suits are seen near the airplane at Haneda airport in Tokyo, on Feb. 17.
-
People believed to be U.S. passengers look outside from one of the buses as they leave from Daikoku Pier Cruise Terminal in Yokohama, south of Tokyo, on Feb. 17.
-
Buses believed to carry the U.S. passengers leave at Daikoku Pier Cruise Terminal in Yokohama, on Feb. 17.
-
Nepalese nationals who were in the coronavirus-stricken Chinese city of Wuhan walk out from a Nepal Airlines Airbus, before they were sent to be quarantine, at Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu, Nepal, on Feb. 16.
-
American passenger packs her belongings on board the Diamond Princess cruise ship which has been quarantined since arriving in Yokohama, south of Tokyo, in early February after a man who disembarked in Hong Kong before it traveled to Japan was diagnosed with the coronavirus, on Feb. 16.
-
A health worker measures the body temperature of a person during the heavy snowfall amid coronavirus fears, in Fuyang City, China, on Feb. 15.
-
A bus leaves a port where the quarantined Diamond Princess cruise ship is docked, on Feb. 15, in Yokohama, Tokyo.
-
Chinese students and their supporters hold a memorial for Dr Li Wenliang, who was the whistleblower of the coronavirus, Covid-19, on Feb. 15, in Westwood, California.
-
A medical worker holds the baby girl with no infection born by a woman infected with novel coronavirus pneumonia in Xi'an, capital of northwest China's Shaanxi Province, on Feb. 15.
-
Cured COVID-19 patients wave goodbye to medical workers, at the 'Wuhan Livingroom' makeshift hospital in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, on Feb. 15.
-
An Indonesian student (L) hugging her relative as she arrives after being quarantined following the novel coronavirus COVID-19 outbreak, at the Juanda International airport, in Sidoarjo, East Java province, on Feb. 15.
-
Hawaii Gov. David Ige, center, state Health Director Bruce Anderson, left, and state Epidemiologist Sarah Park, right, discuss a tourist who was confirmed with the Coronavirus ((COVID-19) after returning home to Japan at a news conference in Honolulu on Feb. 14. Hawaii officials are trying to learn more about who was in close contact with the man and other details about his time in the islands.
-
A worker carts an empty bin used for medical waste after unloading it at a storage facility at the Youan Hospital in Beijing on Feb. 14. Youan Hospital is one of twenty hospitals in Beijing treating Coronavirus patients. Six health workers have died from the Coronavirus (COVID-19 ) in China and more than 1,700 have been infected, health officials said on February 14, underscoring the risks doctors and nurses have taken due to shortages of protective gear.
-
Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (2nd L) and Health Minister Katsunobu Kato (L) attend a meeting of the Coronavirus (COVID-19 ) infectious disease control headquarters at the prime minister's office in Tokyo on Feb. 14. Japan on February 14 began allowing elderly passengers who test negative for the virus to leave a quarantined cruise ship and finish their isolation in government-designated lodging.
-
Students gesture with heart-shaped signs during an activity showing support for China's fight against the novel Coronavirus at a school on Feb. 14 in Ayutthaya province, Thailand.
-
Passengers react after they disembarked from the MS Westerdam, back, at the port of Sihanoukville, Cambodia, on Feb. 14. Hundreds of cruise ship passengers long stranded at sea by virus fears cheered as they finally disembarked Friday and were welcomed to Cambodia. China on Friday reported another sharp rise in the number of people infected with a Coronavirus (COVID-19), as the death toll neared 1,400.
-
Passengers on board the Westerdam cruise ship look on in Sihanoukville on Feb. 14, where the liner on February 13 docked after being refused entry at other Asian ports due to fears of the coronavirus (COVID-19). Cambodia's strongman premier Hun Sen welcomed on February 14 the passengers of a US cruise ship blocked from several Asian ports over fears of a deadly new virus.
-
A man wears a gas mask as he holds a bouquet of flowers, following the outbreak of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) on Valentine’s Day in Hong Kong on Feb. 14.
-
This photo taken on Feb. 13 shows a train attendant gesturing to medical staff leaving for Wuhan in Nanchang, China's central Jiangxi province. The death toll from the Coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic neared 1,400 on Feb. 14, as the United States complained of a "lack of transparency" from Beijing over its handling of a crisis that has fueled global panic.
-
Jay Butler, Deputy Director for Infectious Diseases addresses the media about response to the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19 ) as Senior Adviser Ed Rouse looks on, at the Emergency Operations Center inside The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), on Feb. 13 in Atlanta, United States.
-
In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, Chinese President Xi Jinping, centre, wearing a protective face mask waves as he inspects the novel coronavirus pneumonia prevention and control work at a neighbourhoods in Beijing, on Feb. 10.
Fourteen American cruise ship passengers with coronavirus among those evacuated to the U.S.
Health authorities are searching for passengers from a second cruise ship who could have been exposed to the virus. “We are in close coordination with some of the leading health experts from around the world,” Grant Tarling, Holland America’s chief medical officer, said in a statement. “These experts are working with the appropriate national health authorities to investigate and follow-up with individuals who may have come in contact with the guest.” An 83-year-old American woman who disembarked from the ship at Sihanoukville on Friday took a charter flight to Kuala Lumpur, along with 145 other passengers.
-
American evacuees from the coronavirus outbreak in China board a bus after arriving by flight to Eppley Airfield in Omaha, Neb., on Feb. 7. The evacuees are to be quarantined at Camp Ashland, a nearby Nebraska National Guard training base.
-
A photo of the late ophthalmologist Li Wenliang is seen with flower bouquets at the Houhu Branch of Wuhan Central Hospital in Wuhan in China's central Hubei province on Feb. 7. - A Chinese doctor who was punished after raising the alarm about China's new coronavirus died from the pathogen on Feb. 7, sparking an outpouring of grief and anger over a worsening crisis.
-
A woman wears a plastic water bottle with a cutout to cover her face, as a preventative measure following a virus outbreak which began in the Chinese city of Wuhan, while walking on a footbridge in Hong Kong on Jan. 31.
-
A Guardia di Finanza boat patrol around the Costa Smeralda cruise ship docked in the Civitavecchia port 70km north of Rome on Jan. 30. More than 6,000 tourists were under lockdown aboard the cruise ship after two Chinese passengers were isolated over fears they could be carrying the coronavirus.
Airlines, officials trace path of couple diagnosed with coronavirus that flew from Hawaii
Delta and Hawaiian AIrlines are working with the CDC to trace the path of a couple who were diagnosed with coronavirus after returning from Hawaii.Hawaiian state health officials say the couple, who are in their 60s, were in Hawaii from Jan. 28 to Feb. 7 and tested positive after being hospitalized in Japan.
-
The ultrastructural morphology exhibited by the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV), which was identified as the cause of an outbreak of respiratory illness first detected in Wuhan, China, is seen in an illustration released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia, on Jan. 29.
-
Paramilitary officers wearing face masks stand guard at the Tiananmen Gate, as the country is hit by an outbreak of the new coronavirus, in Beijing, China on Jan. 27.
-
Airport personnel monitor a thermal scanner as passengers arrive at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Pasay, Philippines, on Jan. 23.
-
Director-General of World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus takes part to a news conference after a meeting of the International Health Regulations (IHR) Emergency Committee for Pneumonia due to the Novel Coronavirus 2019-nCoV in Geneva, Switzerland, on Jan. 22.
-
Travelers from China's Wuhan and other cities go through body temperature scanners at Narita international airport in Narita, near Tokyo, on Jan. 23.
Hospital director dies in China's Wuhan, epicentre of coronavirus outbreak
CHINA-HEALTH/DOCTOR (UPDATE 1):UPDATE 1-Hospital director dies in China's Wuhan, epicentre of coronavirus outbreakOfficers wearing protective suits are seen near an airplane prepared for the U.S. passengers of the cruise ship Diamond Princess, where dozens of passengers were tested positive for coronavirus, at Haneda airport in Tokyo, Japan, on Feb. 17.
-
Li Bin, center, deputy director of China's National Health Commission, waits as journalists raise their hands to ask questions during a press conference about a new type of coronavirus spreading in China at the State Council Information Office in Beijing, on Jan. 22.
-
The Wuhan Huanan Wholesale Seafood Market, where a number of people related to the market fell ill with a virus, sits closed in Wuhan, China, on Jan. 21.
-
Medical staff transfer patients to Jinyintan hospital where patients infected with a new strain of Coronavirus identified as the cause of the Wuhan pneumonia outbreak are treated in Wuhan, Hubei province, China, on Jan. 20.
-
Professor Yuen Kwok-yung, right, speaks next to Wong Ka-hing, the Controller of the Centre for Health Protection of the Department of Health during a press conference at the Health Department in Hong Kong, on Jan. 11.
-
-
-
Gallery by photo services
A couple from Japan tested positive for novel coronavirus shortly after visiting Hawaii this month, and Delta Airlines says it is notifying passengers who were on their flight home about the couple's diagnosis.
Hawaiian officials, meanwhile, say they've been looking into the couple's activities in Hawaii, and are trying to find people who may have been in close contact with the couple.
© Spencer Platt/Getty Images NEW YORK, NEW YORK - JANUARY 31: Delta airplanes sit on the tarmac at John F. Kennedy Airport (JFK) on January 31, 2020 in New York City. As fears grow around the globe over the Coronavirus, airlines and other travel industries are bracing for a sharp loss of business as people cut back on travel. The virus, which has so far killed over 200 people and infected an estimated 9,900 people, is believed to have started in the Chinese city of Wuhan. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images) The man and woman were on Maui from January 28 to February 3, and then on Oahu from February 3 until their Delta flight home on February 6 to Nagoya, Japan, Hawaiian health officials say.
Fast genomic sequencing can help stop spread of a virus
As a novel coronavirus began spreading from Wuhan, China, scientists from across the country collaborated to isolate, sequence and publish the complete genetic code of the virus — just a month after the first documented case.The novel coronavirus, which causes the disease COVID-19, is one of a group of viruses called coronaviruses, which also includes the 2003 SARS virus and the 2013 MERS virus.
"We are proactively reaching out to customers who were onboard that flight as well as taking the necessary steps to ensure the safety of our customers and crew," Delta said Monday.
That roughly 10-hour flight, Delta Flight 611, departed Honolulu on the afternoon of February 6 and, after crossing over the International Date Line, landed in Nagoya on the evening of February 7.
Details about the couple's time in Hawaii
Hawaiian state health officials announced on Friday -- eight days after the couple left Hawaii -- that the man had tested positive for coronavirus in Japan, and was being treated at a hospital there.
Those health officials said that the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had informed them Friday of the man's diagnosis.
Over the weekend, the Japan Times reported that the wife, too, was diagnosed with coronavirus.
In a news conference Friday, Hawaiian state health officials said this about the couple's time in Hawaii:
• The man had no symptoms on Maui, which they visited January 28 to February 3.
• The man did have cold-like symptoms, but no fever, on Oahu, where they were staying February 3-6.
• While traveling in Oahu, the couple stayed at a timeshare at the Grand Waikikian by Hilton Grand Vacations in Honolulu.
• The man wore a mask during his flight back to Japan, and may have worn a mask during other parts of his travel.
• The man did not seek medical care until arriving back in Japan, where he'd developed severe symptoms, state epidemiologist Dr. Sarah Park said.
• "It's very likely the (man) was exposed in Japan (before he traveled to Hawaii) or in transit coming to Hawaii, and became sick when he was here," Hawaii Director of Health Brian Anderson said.
China sees drop in new virus cases, two Japan cruise passengers die
China on Thursday touted a big drop in new cases of the coronavirus as a sign it has contained the epidemic, but fears grew abroad after two former passengers of a quarantined cruise ship died in Japan and a cluster of infections increased in South Korea. A Chinese man wears a protective mask as he sits near closed shops in a commercial street on Feb. 18, in Beijing, China. Apple said Monday that it did not expect to meet its quarterly revenue targets due to the coronavirus outbreak in China.
Details about when and where his wife developed symptoms weren't immediately available.
Park said that because people can get sick up to 14 days after exposure to coronavirus, she has alerted physicians in Hawaii "that it's possible that cases may surface sometime before" this Friday, two weeks after the couple left Honolulu.
"Our focus really is about his whereabouts while he was on Oahu, because that's when he developed symptoms," Park said.
CNN's attempts to reach the Grand Waikikian for comment weren't immediately successful.
Lieutenant governor: One man who spent time with the couple is in isolation
The state Department of Health looked into the couple's activities in Oahu and located a man they spent time with there, Lt. Gov. Josh Green told CNN affiliate KHON.
That man "is in two weeks of home isolation now," Green told KHON.
The novel coronavirus has spread throughout the world since the first cases were detected in central China in December. At least 1,800 people have died and more than 73,000 people have been infected. At least 980 of those cases have been outside mainland China.
China's National Health Commission has confirmed the virus can be transmitted from person to person through "droplet transmission" -- where a virus is passed on due to an infected person sneezing or coughing -- as well as by direct contact.
This isn't the first time officials have sought passengers who'd been near coronavirus patients
This is not the first time officials have contacted passengers of a US-connected flight that had a symptomatic coronavirus patient.
Two sick passengers traveled from China to Los Angeles -- one on January 20, and the other on January 22, the CDC has said.
Health authorities contacted people who sat in the same rows as the sick passengers, as well as those in the two rows in front and behind.
Those passengers were told to watch for symptoms, including fever, coughing and trouble breathing. But none of those passengers became ill, the CDC said.
China sees drop in new virus cases, two Japan cruise passengers die .
China on Thursday touted a big drop in new cases of the coronavirus as a sign it has contained the epidemic, but fears grew abroad after two former passengers of a quarantined cruise ship died in Japan and a cluster of infections increased in South Korea. A Chinese man wears a protective mask as he sits near closed shops in a commercial street on Feb. 18, in Beijing, China. Apple said Monday that it did not expect to meet its quarterly revenue targets due to the coronavirus outbreak in China.