Covid-19 Updates: Condition of 8 Covid-19 infected Indians on cruise improving
The ship, Diamond Princess, has a total of 138 Indians, including 132 crew and 6 passengers, on board the ship. The Indian embassy said in a tweet that no additional Indian national on board the cruise has tested positive for the virus since Thursday (Feb 20th).
India was, till Friday afternoon, still awaiting China's clearance for the military aircraft that New Delhi wanted to send to coronavirus-epicentre Wuhan. The plane, with medical supplies, was meant to fly out on Thursday and was to also evacuate remaining Indians from Wuhan.
Additionally, China’s Vice Science and Technology Minister, Xu Nanping, said the earliest vaccine to combat Covid-19 would be submitted for clinical trials around late April. This announcement comes at a time when more than 2,236 people have died due to Covid-19 in China and another 75,400 cases have been confirmed.
Here are the live updates:
China again tweaks diagnosis definition, new cases drop
China has for the second time in a week changed the criteria to diagnose confirmed coronavirus (covid-19) cases, resulting in a drop in numbers from the worst-hit Hubei province .
Under the new criteria, there were 394 cases nationwide on Wednesday, down from 1, 749 on Tuesday, bringing the total number of cases to 74,576, the national health commission (NHC) announced.
Hubei, the epicentre province of the outbreak, reported 349 new cases on Wednesday, down from 1,693 a day earlier.
The revised guidelines for the first time raised the possibility of covid-19 transmission through aerosol in closed environments for extended periods of time.
It added: “…the possibility of aerosol transmission in prolonged exposure to high concentrations of aerosol in a relatively closed environment”.
The number of new covid-19 cases dropped because the health officials have decided to apply stricter and universal criteria nationwide rather than a different, broader standard only for Hubei province as in the previous version.
China sees drop in new virus cases, but more deaths overseas
China on Thursday reported a big drop in new virus infections as proof its epidemic control efforts are working, but the toll grew abroad with deaths in Japan and South Korea.
Fatalities in China hit 2,118 as 114 more people died, but health officials reported the lowest number of new cases in nearly a month, including in hardest-hit Hubei province.
The number of deaths outside mainland China climbed to 11.
Japan confirms 13 more coronavirus cases on quarantined cruise ship
Another 13 people on board the Diamond Princess cruise ship quarantined off the coast of Japan have been diagnosed with the new coronavirus, the country's health ministry said on Thursday.
Confirmation of the new cases, from 52 additional test results, brought the total number of infections diagnosed on board the Diamond Princess so far to 634, the ministry said in a statement.
Iran announces 3 new cases of coronavirus after 2 deaths
Iran said Thursday reported three more people have been infected with the new coronavirus that originated in central China, following an announcement the day before that two people had died of the illness caused by the virus in the Iranian city of Qom.
All schools and universities, including religious Shiite seminaries, were shut down in the holy city of Qom, according to the official IRNA news agency.
First published: Feb 20, 2020 17:14 IST