Yokohama (Japan) (AFP)
The United States gave the signal Monday of the evacuation of the foreigners of the liner contaminated by the coronavirus off Japan, while the assessment of the epidemic continued to climb in China.
The Covid-19 epidemic has killed another 105 people in the past 24 hours in mainland China, bringing the country's total to 1,770 dead since the onset of viral pneumonia in Wuhan (center) in December, announced Monday Chinese authorities.
Outside mainland China, five deaths have been recorded (one in the Philippines, one in Hong Kong, one in Japan, one in France and one in Taiwan announced on Sunday) bringing the total number of people who succumbed to the virus to 1,775 whole.
The number of contaminations amounts to at least 70,500 cases in mainland China and nearly 800 reported in thirty other countries or territories.
The main source of contamination remains the liner Diamond Princess, placed in quarantine with 3,711 people on board in early February at the port of Yokohama, near Tokyo.
No less than 355 people on board were contaminated, even though the passengers had been ordered to stay in their cabin for 14 days. However, due to the lack of sufficient screening resources, only 1,219 passengers were able to undergo virus detection tests.
Fourteen positive cases - people whose test results came in during the operation - are among the approximately 300 Americans evacuated, the State Department announced. These people were isolated from the other passengers on the plane.
At the same time, at least 40 infected Americans on board are hospitalized in Japan, according to Washington. Some 350 American passengers were on board, but not all of them agreed to depart.
- Anniversary canceled -
Other governments, including Australia and Italy, have announced plans to evacuate their citizens. Hong Kong also said it wanted to repatriate its relatives - 330 nationals - "as soon as possible". Ottawa has taken a similar initiative for approximately 250 Canadians.
After Singapore, Japan is the country most affected by the epidemic outside of China. In addition to the cases on the ship, Japanese authorities have identified 60 carriers of the coronavirus in different regions of the country.
Health Minister Katsunobu Kato warned on Sunday that Japan was entering a "new phase" of viral infection, with the country daily seeing additional cases among people who had not visited China and having had no contact with visitors from China.
He called to avoid crowds and crowded places. As a result, the Emperor's birthday celebrations, which attract thousands of people to central Tokyo each year, have been canceled.
Elsewhere, concern is mounting over the more than 2,200 passengers and crew members of another liner, the Westerdam, who disembarked in Cambodia on Friday after undergoing conclusive medical examinations.
A former American passenger was stopped in Malaysia over the weekend and confirmed to be carrying the virus, while the others on board are now scattered all over the world.
In Beijing, international experts dispatched by the WHO began to discuss with their Chinese counterparts, announced the World Health Organization on Sunday evening. The program of their visit was not known.
- Postponement planned for the Chinese Parliament -
The daily number of new deaths in China has confirmed a decline for three days: 105 Monday against 142 Sunday and 143 Saturday.
As regards contamination, the daily assessment increased moderately with 2,048 cases listed in the day of Sunday against 2,009 the day before.
The Chinese parliament is considering postponing its plenary session, the annual high mass of the communist regime, the new China agency announced. This ten-day session should have opened on March 5.
Visiting Pakistan, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said he was confident that "the gigantic effort" made by China "will allow the progressive reduction of the disease".
The epidemic could have a negative effect on global growth in 2020, warned Sunday the director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Kristalina Georgieva, citing a loss of 0.1 to 0.2 percentage point.
burs bar / uh / lch
© 2020 AFP