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British man and 40 others test positive for coronavirus aboard cruise liner

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A statement from the company said the 41 people who were tested positive for Coronavirus are from Argentina (one); Australia (five); Canada (five), Japan (21); United Kingdom (one) and United States (eight).

Before Friday’s 41 confirmed cases, 20 infected passengers were escorted off the Diamond Princess at Yokohama near Tokyo. About 3,700 people have been confined aboard the ship.

The cruise company’s statement also detailed the services available onboard:

“During the remainder of the time onboard, guests will continue to be provided complimentary internet and telephone service to stay in contact with their family and loved ones. In addition, we have added additional live TV channels and a large selection of in-room movies available in multiple languages. The cruise activities staff is packaging games, puzzles and trivia and delivering them to guest staterooms,” it read.

Death of the doctor who warned China

This comes a day after a Chinese hospital says the doctor who tried to raise alarm about the coronavirus outbreak has died of the illness, following confusion over his fate.

Dr Li Wenliang came down with the illness in Wuhan, the city’s Central Hospital said. It reported on its social media site that the 34-year-old ophthalmologist was “unfortunately infected during the fight against the pneumonia epidemic of the new coronavirus infection”.

“We deeply regret and mourn this death,” it added.

Other reports confirming his death have also appeared in Chinese state media outlets such as the Global Times, the English-language version of Communist party outlet, People’s Daily.

There had been conflicting reports over the fate of the doctor. First, Chinese media reports on Thursday said the doctor had died from the infection.

But the hospital later said he lay in a critical condition with the illness and that its medical staff were trying to save him.

That post received nearly 500,000 comments in the first half-hour afterwards, with many people hoping Li would pull through.

Li Wenliang issued the first warnings about the potential impact of the illness after the first cases in December and was later reprimanded by police for “posting false information on the Internet,” the Global Times reported.

His death as first reported brought a response from the World Health Organisation earlier on Thursday. “We are deeply saddened by the passing of Dr Li Wenliang,” said Mike Ryan, Executive Director of the WHO Health Emergencies Program.

But the WHO explained later in a tweet that it was just responding to reports, and had no information about the status of Dr Li.

More European cases

Britain and Germany announced more coronavirus cases on Thursday, bringing the total number of confirmed virus cases in Europe to 29.

Novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) has now infected over 28,200 people worldwide and killed at least 564.

In Germany, all the cases have centered on a car parts supplier, Webasto, whose headquarters near Munich was visited by a Chinese trainer. The latest is the wife of an employee who was previously diagnosed.

Meanwhile, two newborn babies in China were announced as the youngest diagnosed cases.

Most of the fatalities so far have been in China’s central Hubei province, including the city of Wuhan where the infection was first detected in December.

Holiday camp

Dozens of Italians and Poles repatriated from of Wuhan have been quarantined over fears they may have contracted the coronavirus.

Italy’s evacuation flight landed at a military airport near Rome on Monday – bringing 56 people home – while 30 people from Poland landed Sunday night. Both groups will spend two weeks in quarantine.

A total of 254 Europeans arrived in France on Sunday from Wuhan, where the deadly virus was first detected. They are now in quarantine in France — at a holiday camp near Carry-Le-Rouet or a firefighters’ training centre near Aix-en-Provence — or have travelled on to their home countries.

In Britain, British nationals evacuated from Wuhan were being held in quarantine at a hospital in Wirral while non-UK nationals were at the RAF Brize Norton military base in Oxfordshire.

China isolated

Hong Kong has sealed most of its border crossings with mainland China, Kazakhstan has suspended travel to and from its neighbour and dozens of international airlines have cancelled flights to and from China since the outbreak.

Beijing has criticised a decision by the United States to bar entry to most non-nationals who have visited China in the past two weeks, saying it contradicted the WHO’s appeal to avoid travel bans.

Other countries to have taken similar measures include Australia, Japan, Singapore and the Philippines.

What’s the situation inside China?

In Hubei, bustling streets, shops, restaurants and other public spaces in the city were eerily empty as authorities put more than a dozen cities on lockdown.

The city of Wuhan, where the outbreak originated, has admitted the first patients to the new hospital, while construction crews continue to work around the clock on the second facility.

The cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Xian and Tianjin have suspended long-distance coach services, as well as the vast province of Shandong.

As a symbol of the concern that has gripped China, the authorities have announced the closure of sections of the famous Great Wall, as well as the Disneyland resort site in Shanghai.

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