Coronavirus Updates: 7th Indian tests positive on cruise ship; 2 dead in Iran

Passengers on board the cruise ship Diamond Princess who tested negative for coronavirus on Wednesday began disembarking the vessel after two weeks of quarantine even as the number of cases infected with the virus on board the ship moored near Tokyo rose to 621.

Japan's health ministry said it had discovered 79 additional cases of the flu-like disease that originated in Wuhan, China. Of the new cases, 68 showed no symptoms, it said.

About 500 people were expected to disembark the Diamond Princess on Wednesday, a ministry official said earlier, with the process completed by Friday.

German sportswear makers Adidas and Puma have both warned that the coronavirus outbreak was hurting their business in China due to store closures and fewer Chinese tourists travelling and shopping in other markets.

Adidas and Puma make almost a third of their sales in Asia and China is a major producer for both companies.

Iran confirmed on Wednesday its first two cases of the new coronavirus, the government's spokesman said, shortly after reports that preliminary tests on the two had come back positive.

"As we had promised to announce any confirmed cases, a few minutes ago the health minister confirmed the two cases of the new coronavirus in the city of Qom," Ali Rabiei said on Twitter.

The health ministry said earlier that the patients had been put in isolation

Four of the 49 students from Bihar, studying at Coronavirus-hit Wuhan, were put under 14-day home isolation after they arrived in Patna on Wednesday. A tourist from Myanmar was kept under observation in an isolation unit at a government hospital in Gaya.

The 49 students were earlier kept under 14-day surveillance at Gurugram after Air India operated two flights to evacuate over 600 Indians from Wuhan. The state, however, was not taking any chance, as it put them under home isolation.

Coronavirus infections on a cruise ship moored near Tokyo rose to 621 people on Wednesday as passengers began disembarking following a contentious two-week quarantine that some foreign health experts said appeared insufficient to stop the spread.

Japan's health ministry said it had discovered 79 additional cases of the flu-like disease that originated in Wuhan, China. Of the new cases, 68 showed no symptoms, it said.