Japanese Health Minister Katsunobu Kato apologized yesterday after a woman was allowed to leave a cruise ship with an outbreak of Corona virus near Tokyo, and tests showed she was HIV positive.

The woman, in her sixties, left the ship on Wednesday after spending two weeks in quarantine on the ship, but it was discovered that she had the virus after another test in Tochigi Prefecture, north of Tokyo.

"We sincerely apologize for this stance, which resulted from our negligence," Kato said at a press conference yesterday evening. "We will take all necessary measures, such as increasing the examination procedures to prevent this from happening again."

The Chinese National Health Commission confirmed 648 new infections.

The majority of deaths and injuries occurred in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei, where the virus first appeared last December.

The Health Committee said the total number of infections inside China had reached 76,936 cases.

The number of new daily infections in China is much lower, compared to the first period of the virus spread.