February 3 coronavirus news

Our live coverage of the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak has moved here.

The first US patient to have a confirmed case of Wuhan coronavirus, a man in his 30s, has been discharged from the

Providence Regional Medical Center in Everett, Washington.

Providence Regional Medical Center in Everett, Washington, the hospital said Monday in a statement.

“The patient remains in isolation at home and is being monitored by the Snohomish Health District, in coordination with his care team at Providence,” the statement said. “For the privacy of the patient, we will not be disclosing the exact date of discharge or any additional details regarding his discharge process.”

The patient issued the following statement: “I am at home and continuing to get better. I ask that the media please respect my privacy and my desire not to be in the public eye.

“I would like to thank the doctors, nurses, and entire team at Providence who cared for me. I appreciate all of the concern expressed by members of the public, and I look forward to returning to my normal life,” the patient said.

There are now at least 11 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus in the United States. Six cases have been confirmed in California, one in Massachusetts, one in Washington state, one in Arizona and two in Illinois. There have been two instances of person-to-person transmission – one in Illinois and one in California.

The Hubei health authority said 64 more people died of the coronavirus in China’s Hubei province on Monday, raising the death toll in the epicenter of the outbreak to 414 people.

In mainland China, 425 people have died from the virus. The official global death toll is now 426.

Authorities confirmed an additional 2,345 cases of the virus in Hubei on Monday. That brings the total number of cases in the province to 13,522.

The health authority said 10,990 patients have been hospitalized in Hubei, including 576 who are in critical condition.

There have been more than 19,000 confirmed coronavirus cases globally.

Two patients – husband and wife – have been transferred from their home in San Benito County, California, to an undisclosed hospital in San Francisco, Rachel Kagan of SF Department of Public Health told CNN.

The husband had recently traveled to Wuhan, China. The wife did not, meaning she contracted the virus from person-to-person contact. The pair showed worsening symptoms Sunday night.

“It was then determined that both patients needed to be admitted to a hospital equipped for a higher level of care. The patients have been transferred out of San Benito County by specialty ambulance,” said Dr. Martin Fenstersheib, San Benito County’s public health officer.

The hospital is taking all appropriate precautions for patient and staff safety, said a release from SF Public Health. It added that there is no elevated risk to the public.

A new case of the virus has been identified in the German federal state of Bavaria, bringing the total number of cases within Germany to 11, Bavaria’s Health Ministry confirmed Monday. 

According to the State Office for Health and Food Safety, the eleventh case was identified in a child from the district of Traunstein, who tested positive just a week after the child’s father was found to have been infected. 

On Saturday, CNN reported that the father – aged 33 – is an employee at a company in the district of Starnberg, where six other employees previously tested positive with the deadly virus. 

An attendant checks the temperature of a tourist at the entrance to the Galaxy Macau casino and hotel in Macau, China, on Friday, January 24.

There isn’t a single face exposed in Macao’s cavernous Galaxy casino. Everyone is wearing a mask, including the croupiers, waitresses and security guards – who happen to vastly outnumber the scattered customers gambling at blackjack and roulette tables.

Visitors only momentarily drop their masks at the entrances to the casino, to pose for thermal cameras on the lookout for the deadly Wuhan coronavirus that has killed hundreds of people in mainland China and infected thousands more.

The outbreak has left the free-wheeling, semi-autonomous Chinese territory of Macao shell-shocked.

Last year the city received almost 40 million visitors. Now, streets and squares once teeming with tourists from mainland China are empty. Ambulances roam the city, operated by emergency workers dressed in hazardous materials suits.

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Much is still unknown about the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak, and health officials are urging vigilance.

That means travelers crisscrossing the globe should be aware of the virus, steer clear of heavily impacted areas and exercise some of the same kinds of preventive measures they’d use to avoid influenza and other illnesses.

Many countries are issuing travel advisories and airlines all over the globe are canceling flights to China.

Read more about cancellations, travel insurance and basic precautions here

A courier delivers a shipment to Wuhan Union Hospital on January 29

Employees of many companies that have suspended operations in China should be receiving their paychecks as usual.

Following the extension of the Lunar New Year holiday because of the outbreak of coronavirus, China’s government has reinforced labor laws that require employees to be compensated while on vacation.

Local governments have also formulated their own announcements based on the law, according to Matthew Margulies, vice president of China operations at the US-China Business Council.

Employees who have been infected by the virus will still receive compensation, added Margulies. Additionally, employees that were required to work over the extended holiday will be paid extra.

Initially set to run to January 30, the Chinese government extended the holiday nationwide to February 2. While business has now resumed in certain areas like Beijing, others like Shanghai and Hubei province are still in lockdown for at least another week.

Starbucks and McDonald’s have closed all their Hubei stores indefinitely while Honda and Renault have extended the shutdown period in their Wuhan plants until February 13.

Other large companies, such as Peugeot and Toyota, have halted operations at their Chinese plants. 

Webasto, an auto part company which confirmed last week that four of its employees based at its headquarters near Munich were affected by the virus, has closed its operation in Wuhan until February 14.

A spokesperson for the German company confirmed that workers would be fully paid during the closure. 

Indian returnees line up for a temperature reading at an army camp in Manesar.

Over the weekend, two special Air India aircrafts brought home more than 650 Indian passengers from Wuhan.

The passengers have been quarantined in two separate camps in and around the country’s capital, New Delhi.  

One returnee told CNN that he was worried about being placed in close quarters with others on the flights: “There are around 20 of us in a room which is a bit scary,” said Mohahammad Haseeb, a PhD student at Wuhan University’s Economics department.

“We sit together for our meals,” he added, saying they will be quarantined until February 15, when test results come back.

The head of Sudan’s Sovereign Council gave a directive on Monday to launch an “urgent air bridge” to evacuate Sudanese nationals in Wuhan to Khartoum directly, Sudan’s state news agency SUNA reports. 

Lt. Gen. Abdel-Fattah Al-Burhan, the head of the country’s Sovereign Council called on Sudan’s Ministry of Health to carry out all arrangements and take the necessary precautions. 

He also stressed the importance of implementing the operation “as quickly as possible” in coordination between all the concerned authorities, SUNA reports. 

A customer pushes a cart past empty egg shelves at a supermarket in Shanghai, China, on Tuesday, January 28.

The US State Department has recommended that Americans who remain in China take precautionary measures like avoiding large groups and stocking up on food, it said in an updated security alert Monday.

“In the event that the situation deteriorates further, the ability of the U.S. Embassy and Consulates to provide assistance to U.S. nationals within China may be limited,” it says.

Cruise ship Diamond Princess sits anchored off the Yokohama Port, Japan, upon its arrival on Monday, February 3.

Japanese public health authorities are checking the passengers and crew onboard a cruise ship that docked in Yokohama, after a former passenger of the Diamond Princess ship tested positive for the virus, Princess Cruises confirmed Monday.

There are  2,666 guests and 1,045 crew aboard the Diamond Princess.

In a statement, the cruise company said the turnaround of the ship has been delayed for approximately 24 hours.

The passenger, a guest from Hong Kong, got on the ship on January 20 in Yokohama and disembarked in Hong Kong on January 25.

He visited a Hong Kong hospital six days after leaving the ship and tested positive for the Wuhan coronavirus on February 1, according to the statement.

 “While on the ship he did not visit the ship’s medical centre to report any symptoms or illness. The hospital reports that he is in stable condition and the family members traveling with him remain symptom-free,” the statement continued. 

Princess Cruises is owned by the Carnival Corporation.

Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois-Philippe Champagne.

The Canadian government is still waiting on permission, as well as flight manifest and document approval, from the Chinese government in order to repatriate Canadians in Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak, according to the Global Affairs Canada Minister.

In a Monday press conference, François-Philippe Champagne formally thanked the Chinese and Vietnamese authorities for their cooperation, adding “it is a multistep process given the complexity of this evolving situation.”

He explained that a charter plane is headed to Hanoi to wait for final approvals and said that Wuhan’s airspace is closed, which is why special permission is needed for a plane to land there.

He later rebuffed questions about whether the slow speed of approvals was linked to Canada’s strained diplomatic tensions with China, calling the topic “inappropriate” and describing Chinese authorities as cooperative.

The number of Canadians seeking repatriation has only recently jumped from two people to hundreds, he added.

Members of a standing rapid deployment team are already on the ground in Hanoi and Wuhan to help coordinate, he added. 

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Dr. Robert Redfield, and members of the Trump Administration's Coronavirus Task Force hold a press briefing on Friday, January 31.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says it is poised to assist China with containing its coronavirus outbreak, but is still waiting on an official invitation. 

“What I can say is that we have folks ready to go to China as soon as that offer is finalized,” Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said during a call with reporters on Monday. 

“As soon as we are allowed to go, we will be there,” Messonnier said. “Our presence on the ground in China will be a help.”

National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases Director Nancy Messonnier.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is currently working to provide diagnostic testing for the virus to health departments across the United States.

Currently, tests are only carried out in Atlanta. But the “emergency use authorization” for tests have been expedited for local testing capabilities, according to CDC officials.

“The process is extremely expedited and our colleagues at [the US Food and Drug Administration] have been working with us closely ever since we made the plan that we were going to do this in this way,” Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said during a call with reporters on Monday. 

The US Department of Health and Human Services declared the Wuhan coronavirus to be a public health emergency in the US on Friday.

On January 30, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the coronavirus a public health emergency of international concern.

Local medical workers hold a strike near Queen Mary Hospital in Hong Kong on Friday.

Hong Kong’s hospital authority (HA) urged healthcare workers to return to work after they began a strike Monday in response to the government’s handling of the Wuhan coronavirus.

In a statement released Monday, the HA called “all healthcare workers participating in industrial action to return to work as soon as possible to avoid further affecting public hospital services and patient treatment.”

Hong Kong’s main public hospital medical workers union began a strike Monday with at least 2,400 people participating in the first day, according to Hospital Authority Employee Alliance union’s Facebook page.

The union previously asked the government to meet demands including stopping all travelers from entering Hong Kong from mainland China, implementing measures to ensure the supply of face masks, providing isolation wards and sufficient support for staff working in them, and investigating reports of patients escaping hospitals. 

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has listed 260 “patients under investigation” for the novel coronavirus across 36 states as of February 3, according to an update posted on the agency’s website Monday. That’s an increase of 19 from the last update, provided Friday.

Of the 260 patients under investigation, 11 have tested positive, 167 negative, and 82 are still pending.

Pending cases includes specimens that have been received and not yet undergone testing, as well as those in transit to CDC from health authorities in various states.

CDC is the only lab in the US that can conduct diagnostic testing for the virus, but it is developing coronavirus testing kits to share with “domestic and international partners,” according to an earlier statement from the agency.

The United Arab Emirates has joined a raft of countries and companies placing restrictions on flights to and from China due to the coronavirus outbreak

The UAE will suspend all flights to and from the country (except for the Beijing route) starting February 5, the state-run Emirates News Agency reported on Monday.

Passengers travelling from Beijing will undergo a “six-to-eight hour” medical screening at the airport, the statement added.

Meanwhile, Germany’s Lufthansa airline has extended its suspension of all flights to Beijing and Shanghai until February 28.

Flights to the cities were originally cancelled until February 9.

“Lufthansa Group has decided to suspend its Lufthansa, Swiss and Austrian Airlines flights to/from Beijing and Shanghai until February 28 with immediate effect,” the airline said in a statement on Monday.

An airplane carrying Japanese citizens repatriated from Wuhan amidst the coronavirus outbreak lands at Haneda airport on January 29.

Japanese authorities will deny entry to foreign nationals who have been to Hubei province — the epicenter of the novel coronavirus – in the past 14 days, even if they show no symptoms of the virus.

On Monday, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Japan has rejected five people under the new measure. He did not disclose the nationalities of those who were denied entry. 

The measure was announced by the government on Saturday at a coronavirus task force meeting at Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s office. Abe called it “an extraordinary measure.”

Holders of Chinese passports issued in Hubei are also banned from entering Japan.

Japan has 20 confirmed cases of the virus.

People gather to receive arriving passengers at the Islamabad International Airport in Pakistan on Monday.

Pakistan has resumed direct flights with China for all Chinese and Pakistani airlines after further review following a suspension on Friday due to the coronavirus outbreak.

According to Pakistan’s health ministry, Standard Operating Procedures have been set up to deal with the virus at the airport. Pakistan currently has no confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the country.