Covid-19 Updates: Condition of 8 Covid-19 infected Indians on cruise improving

The new cases represented the first novel coronavirus infections in Italy acquired through secondary contagion and tripled the country’s total to nine.

The novel coronavirus was found in a 45-year-old Lebanese woman who had travelled from Qom in Iran.

A set of 50 simple surgical masks can sell for up to 300 Hong Kong dollar (USD 40), while the top of the range N95 variety is going for as high as 1,800 Hong Kong dollars a box.

The spokesman of the health ministry, Kianoush Jahanpour, said the newly detected cases are all linked with city of Qom where the first two elderly patients died on Wednesday.

Both Iraq and Kuwait, which respectively share land and maritime borders with Iran, have not confirmed any cases of the virus internally.

The other dozen Israeli passengers who have flown home from Diamond Princess, docked at the coast of Japan, have all tested negative for novel coronavirus.

Chinese health authorities have asked health agencies to apply for the honour of martyr for deceased medical staff to the veteran’s affairs authorities, comfort the families of the deceased and help solve their difficulties, as well as publicise stories of those who sacrificed their lives during the Covid-19 epidemic, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

Airlines operating in the Asia-Pacific region stand to lose a combined $27.8 billion of revenue this year in the ongoing coronavirus crisis, the International Air Transport Association said on Thursday.

The estimate is based on projections of a 13-percent full-year decline in passenger demand, mostly in China, the trade body said in a statement.

IATA said its estimate assumed that COVID-19 behaves like a SARS outbreak nearly two decades ago, which was "characterised by a six-month period with a sharp decline followed by an equally quick recovery".

Airlines in China's domestic market alone are estimated to lose around $12.8 billion in revenues.

Carriers outside the Asia-Pacific region are seen suffering $1.5 billion in losses.

This brings worldwide airline revenue lost to the virus to a projected $29.3 billion, IATA said.

India will evacuate around 100 of its nationals from the coronavirus-epicentre Wuhan in China, the ministry of external affairs said on Thursday.

MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar told reporters that India is sending a C-17 military transport aircraft to Wuhan with medical supplies which will evacuate about 100 Indians on its return flight.

India is awaiting clearance from the Chinese side.

India's national carrier Air India earlier this month evacuated over 640 Indians from Wuhan in two separate flights.

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday chaired a meeting here for reviewing the preparedness in wake of Coronavirus. She discussed the matter with secretaries and senior officials of various departments of the government.

WHO director general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says coronavirus cases in rest of the world are very low compared to China. However, he added that this may not stay the same for very long.

Air India is extending the suspension of its flights to China till June 30.

Last month, the national carrier had suspended its six weekly Delhi-Shanghai flights from January 31 to February 14. However, it did not restart the flight operations from February 15 onwards. The national carrier had also suspended its Delhi-Hong Kong flights due to the coronavirus epidemic that has killed more than 2,000 people in China till date.

"Flight operations on both routes -- Delhi-Shanghai and Delhi-Hong Kong -- have been suspended till June 30," an Air India spokesperson said on Thursday.

India’s first coronavirus patient, a medical student who had returned from Wuhan in China, was discharged from the Medical College Hospital in Thrissur on Thursday, the Kerala health ministry said.

The discharge of the student marked the recovery of all three cases which had tested positive in the country and had been reported from the state. Two other students - one from Alappuzha and another from Kasargod - were discharged earlier after their repeated tests emerged negative. The first patient of the country, a woman student, was undergoing treatment in an isolation ward of the hospital since she tested positive on January 30. But all three patients who were discharged were asked to remain quarantined in their houses till March 2.

Two elderly passengers became the first people from aboard a cruise ship moored near Tokyo to die of the coronavirus, the Japanese government said on Thursday. The confirmation of their deaths came as hundreds more passengers disembarked after two weeks' quarantine.

The two patients who died are an 87-year-old man and an 84-year-old woman. Both had tested for the virus although the woman's cause of death was listed as pneumonia, the Japanese health ministry said, reports news agency Reuters.

The 621 coronavirus cases aboard the Diamond Princess cruise liner are by far the largest cluster of infection outside China.

The crew of a US cruise ship were given the all-clear from the deadly new coronavirus on Thursday, as Cambodia's premier suggested a former passenger who tested positive had caught it after leaving the country, reports AP.

The Westerdam was at sea for two weeks, rejected by five countries over fears its passengers could be carrying the virus, which has killed more than 2,100 people.

But Cambodia's premier Hun Sen allowed it to dock on the country's southern coast on February 13, and hundreds disembarked after basic health checks.