China coronavirus: 3 new cases in both Japan and Singapore as the Philippines, India confirm first infections
- A 38-year-old Chinese woman in the Philippines and a student in the Indian state of Kerala have tested positive for the virus
- Meanwhile, in Singapore, three more infections have been found – bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 13
Chito Avelino, director of the Health Department’s Epidemiology Bureau, said authorities were tracking people who may have been exposed to the patient, who is known to have travelled through the cities of Cebu and Dumaguete.
She was among 23 people who had been screened after exhibiting flu-like symptoms and is currently asymptomatic, Duque said.
Of those under investigation, 17 are in Metro Manila and include an HIV-infected man who died of pneumonia, according to CNN Philippines.
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Other patients are located in the Central Visayas, Mimaropa, Western Visayas, Eastern Visayas and Davao.
Meanwhile, India’s Health Ministry also confirmed its first case on Thursday – a student returning from Wuhan had been placed in isolation in a hospital in Kerala. The “patient is stable and being closely monitored”, the ministry said.
A senior Indian government official said bringing Indian nationals from Wuhan was not the best option because of the risk of infection but increased pressure from the citizens, most of them students, and their parents had forced them to keep an aircraft on standby.
The aeroplane has been readied for travel to Wuhan but was waiting for a nod from Chinese authorities who were trying to sequence the whole evacuation process.
“Only those nationals who don’t have the virus will be airlifted, they will be brought into a quarantine facility outside Delhi,” the official said, requesting anonymity.
Elsewhere, three new cases were reported in Singapore on Thursday, bring the total number of confirmed cases in the city state to 13.
All three patients are residents of Wuhan, the health ministry said, with the eleven and twelfth cases – women aged 31 and 37 – having arrived in Singapore on January 22. The thirteenth case is a 73-year-old woman who arrived one day earlier and is currently the oldest among the country’s confirmed cases.
In Japan, three new cases were also confirmed on Thursday – the patients being among the more than 400 people that the country has repatriated from the Chinese city. Two of Wednesday’s returnees initially refused to be tested for the virus, although officials said the pair were now willing to be checked.
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The coronavirus, known to be transmitted between humans, has already spread as far afield as Japan, North America, Europe and the Middle East.
At least 7,700 cases of infection have now been identified in China alone, according to official media.
Coronaviruses generally cause common cold-like symptoms affecting the nose, sinuses or upper throat, and are spread through sneezing, coughing or direct contact.
But some types lead to more serious, sometimes deadly respiratory diseases such as severe acute respiratory syndrome or Middle East respiratory syndrome, known as Sars and Mers, respectively.
The Sars pandemic sickened 8,098 people and killed 774 globally.
Additional reporting by Dewey Sim, Reuters, Associated Press, Agence France-Presse, DPA
