Officials have said that two Japanese passengers who contracted coronavirus on board a cruise ship quarantined in Japan have died.
What We Know:
- The victims, an 87-year-old man and an 84-year-old woman, already had ongoing health conditions Japan’s health ministry said. They were being treated in hospitals after being taken off the Diamond Princess last week. The man, from Kanagawa prefecture south of Tokyo, had bronchial asthma and died due to the virus. The woman, straight from the capital, passed away from the pneumonia also believable to be caused by the virus. The victims have not been publicly named.
- At least 621 people on the ship have now tested positive for the virus, named Covid-19, now making it the biggest cluster outside China.
- The infamous coronavirus, which originated in China’s Hubei province last year, has now claimed 2,118 lives, with the number unfortunately rising weekly. As of late, there are nearly 75,000 confirmed infections recorded in mainland China.
- According to BBC, South Korea confirmed its first coronavirus death on Thursday. Japan’s neighbor also reported a sharp rise in virus cases, most of them from a newly identified cluster at a large religious community.
- As rapid concern rises during this health crisis, Mayor Kwon Young-jin of Daegu, South Korea urged its two and half million residents to not leave their homes, after several reported cases started popping up in the city and neighboring towns.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) describes COVID-19’s symptoms similar to pneumonia, ranging from the mild, such as a slight cough, to the more severe, including fever and difficulty breathing. There is no vaccine yet for the virus.
