Japan reports first coronavirus death; 3 others, including doctor test positive

two taxi drivers and doctor, all professions that interact with people.. are they going to track everyone they came in contact with or wait till those show up sick or dead?

when the first case of this disease popped up, I said to myself, gotta stop all travel from China to Japan. That didn’t happen and now look!

This thing is clearly worse than expected.

RIP

Two cab driver infection means Wuhan coronavirus is now an endemic community disease persisting through the Tokyo Olympics.

At least vaccines should be ready in time for next year's Wuhan virus season.

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/12/cdc-prepares-for-coronavirus-to-take-a-foothold-in-the-us.html

Top CDC official says US should prepare for coronavirus ‘to take a foothold’

“At some point, we are likely to see community spread in the U.S. or in other countries,” said Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.

Japan said it would allow some elderly people who have tested negative for the coronavirus to disembark ahead of schedule.

They are only allowing the elderly over 80 yrs old who tested negative to leave. If you’re with your 85 year old mother on the ship, would you just let her leave by herself?

A WHO advisor is reported to have said 2/3 of the world population could get infected in a recent WHO meeting.

If it gets bad here in Japan I will become a hikkikomori. With my weak immune system this virus would love me to death. I'm not taking any chances. I've got enough savings to quit my job and hide out for a good while. Good job China! Maybe...you know... clean up your eating and living habits...?

Japan needs to screening to find the source of the virus. Or it will be too late.

Abe isn’t ‘brushing aside concerns’ now , is he?

Instead of preventing Chinese passengers disembarking in Japan, the virus has been allowed to spread!

Stationing police next to quarantine desks at airports doesn’t have much effect on viral transmissions.

Preventing transmission from the source does.

For those of us wishing to travel from Japan to foreign lands, will now be severely inconvenienced.

The Abe government has shown its ineffectiveness once again.

Japan needs to screening to find the source of the virus. Or it will be too late.

The source is China. Everyone already knows that.

Strangerland, no, the sources are still not identified.

Japan needs to screening to find the source of the virus. Or it will be too late.

The source is China. Everyone already knows that.

We need to know the source(s) (individuals). You can’t let the source. for example continue to drive a taxi around town.

Strangerland, no, the sources are still not identified.

Sure it has - China.

kurisupisu, Abe govt did good job on this, please be objective.

The J-news did not report the case in Chiba is a taxi driver.

Virus comes from China. Huge pandemic happening there. The Chinese government says "who, us?"

Once again regimes thinking that people who aren't subject to them are going to be stupid enough to believe their propaganda.

@Akie

In my opinion no.

However, Abe has the opportunity to restrict flights from infected countries to Japan immediately.

This needs to be done,otherwise Japan will see more deaths...

kurisupisu, when people leave China, they are screened one by one. China is very responsible nation. When visitors come, Japan govt also screen them, not everyone of them, but scientifically reasonable.

https://m.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/feb/5/china-denies-lab-link-to-coronavirus-as-questions-/

When the Chinese government says the virus is 'because of Chinese unsanitary lifestyle', you know the government is trying to hide something else "INCOMPETENCE".

Virus comes from China. Huge pandemic happening there. The Chinese government says "who, us?"

That's a straw man against China. She knows exactly that the virus originated there and has been doing a lot to control it, including locking down a city nearly as big as Tokyo.

A woman has died from the coronavirus in Japan, the first such death in the country since the epidemic spread from China, the health minister said on Thursday.

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong- but if I'm not mistaken, isn't this the first death of a non chinese national? There was a death reported in the Phillipines, but it was a chinese man.

This thing is clearly worse than expected.

That's what I've been saying for a while..

If symptoms of the corona virus infection was apparent in screened passengers then measures would be effective.

However, some Chinese travelers have used anti virals to mask symptoms or are asymptomatic.

The Kanagawa death was misdiagnosed and only later was the corona virus discovered post mortem.

Treating this particular corona virus as akin to influenza is a mistake.

For that reason, there have to be stricter barriers in place.

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong- but if I'm not mistaken, isn't this the first death of a non chinese national? There was a death reported in the Phillipines, but it was a chinese man.

I think the first was actually an American man in China. Not sure the details though.

For those who are confuse. Most of the infected cases are in hospitals receiving treatments. And those that they were in contact with usually can be quarantine for 14days until the symptoms show up. Once they get sick, they would be tested if they had it or not. This way is to prevent of wasting too many test kits. The woman who died had already infected that Tokyo taxi chauffeur. He was already in quarantine and only been confirm to be infected after so many days. Most of any new cases that show up are already people who are under the watch of the government. The virus is not spreading like everyone thinks. Is merely being misinformed. 14 days and if you get sick during that time, only then will you be tested. That is what they are also doing on the cruise ships to prevent from wasting 3000 test kits. They are waiting for the infected to show symptoms before testing them. This is why they weren't planning to have them leave the ship until the 14 days are up.

I think the first was actually an American man in China. Not sure the details though.

Thank you for that!

"I would like to clearly reiterate that cancellation or postponement of the Tokyo Games are not being considered," he said at the start of a meeting with International Olympic Committee Coordination Commission Chief John Coates.

Either lying or ignoring the facts, in both cases plain stupid. You need to have a plan B

Japan is paying the price to be geographically close to China,with a regime (China) that even now won’t disclose the true situation of the pandemic to the global community.

The world knows and even if we couldn’t already trust the Chinese government before the distrust now increased.

I hope the Japanese authorities can contain the spread of this disease.

@ The Abe government has shown its ineffectiveness once again.

Election time coming, please remember to vote if the GOJ is that ineffective.

@Akie reply to :Strangerland, no, the sources are still not identified.

Akie, the rest of the world IAW the WHO has identified China as the "main source" and area in where this started.

Question that has not been answered if the dangers and high risks with handling such a virus for whatever purposes, research aka for "peaceful" intentions ("what a laugh from a country who encroaches on its neighbors constantly in the name of peace with the cloak of military equipment and manpower" ) doing with such a virus in the first place without high level protocols in place? The world had not had such a dangerous virus released or even studied because of the high risks and vulnerabilities unknown to man, yet this country persisted? Why to gain what? Where there is no smoke why start a fire?

Coughing and sneezing and spitting ,is ways been spread

Although it's probably too late by now, Japan should block arrivals from mainland China, just as Hong Kong is doing.

It seems some people may be spreading virus all over but they do not notice it. What I can do is to wear face mask outside and wash hands very often and try not to go to crowd as possible as I can. All people better do this. As far as I'm concerned, the Olympics should be postponed to Autumn.

I'm not a physician, but there is an old saying "Starve a fever, feed a cold", -- current medical research states both require calories, but perhaps those who are overweight may wish to try it?

Sunshine, exercise, good food, vitamins, drink enough water, get plenty of rest. Make sure you have enough food stock incase of a panic. Corona is here and we are all going to have to deal with it.

Just hope there is enough care for all the sick people next week and into the year.

Olympics is over. Possible Japans economy will collapse too. Too bad. I liked this place.

Aly, “Someone please correct me if I'm wrong- but if I'm not mistaken, isn't this the first death of a non chinese national? There was a death reported in the Phillipines, but it was a chinese man.”

A Japanese man died of pneumonia in Wuhan. At first it was only suspected to be the result of the new virus, but it was later confirmed.

Invalid CSRF

Educator, thank you for the info.

"I would like to clearly reiterate that cancellation or postponement of the Tokyo Games are not being considered," he said at the start of a meeting with International Olympic Committee Coordination Commission Chief John Coates.

Either lying or ignoring the facts, in both cases plain stupid.

What do you expect from this administration?

News from behind the iron curtain ... Over 50000 died , over 1.5 million infected cases. The Whistle blower doctor was murdered to hind the truth of the bio-weapon leak and the origin of corona out break. World media is afraid to talk about it. It is coming. WHO should tell the truth to the world. The world should be prepared for this. here is an escaped billionaire from China tells the real situation.

Watch

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnGMI2etU1g&feature=youtu.be

Watch .. Chinese Police Force Family Into Coronavirus Quarantine

https://youtu.be/rKek0Y30Ctw

China should tell the truth to the world... Or the world should tell this to China.

https://youtu.be/QqBTfQwrWGs

Also on Thursday, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said the cabinet would decide on Friday on spending 15.3 billion yen from the budget reserve to respond to the coronavirus

Under-estimating an epidemic - set your priorities straight Abe, this decision should've been done on the first on-set of the virus in Japan.

Pneumonia is not contagious

Japanese are very conscious of cleanliness, so I thought. Generally that's true from my experience. But it's not always true. For example, when I first visited medical facilities I didn't see any place for staff to wash their hands or wearing surgical gloves. I saw people wearing face masks to protect themselves from disease. and I discovered that beds aren't always changed between patients. What?? When I worked in medical facilities it was wash you hands whenever entering or leaving a room, wear gloves for direct contact, change the exam tables before each new patient, and mask to prevent infecting others. (USA) So, how can this be? Medical care in Japan is top notch, right? Well, based on infection control outcomes Japan is as good as the USA.

However, in the case of the COVID-19 (Novel Wuhan Corona virus 2019) the common Japanese infection control standards aren't going to cut it. Japan needs to take preventative action rather than defensive action as they always see to regarding disasters. They must take pro-active rather than re-active actions to control this.

If you want to avoid infection this year try these measures: 1) wash your hands and face per guidelines 2) avoid touching your face, eyes, nose, mouth with unwashed hands 3) avoid sick people 4) if you touch surfaces (handrails, door handles, seats, etc.) in crowded public places repeat step 1. 5) stay fit and healthy (Don't depend on masks to protect yourself)

Regarding the Olympics the disruption and anxiety would have already begun anyway.

Thousands of planners, officials, participants for ceremonies, guides, volunteers, additional workers etc. would soon have to be on the move around Tokyo and the wider Kanto area in regards to drills, rehearsals, training and the like.

I feel a lot of the folks involved in any of the above would have to be starting to feel a bit nervous and may even have second thoughts about their participation.

Just as an aside I wonder if China would even be able to train and assemble its usual massive Olympic team, coaches and officials. Surely their preparation must be hindered even at this stage.

Japanese are very conscious of cleanliness, so I thought. Generally that's true from my experience. 

No they are not. A sad number of people do not wash their hands with soap or even not at all after getting out of toilet. This is utterly disgusting. I have been here for 20 years and I see this on a daily basis for the vast majority of men I see at work or at public places. I am also told by foreign female friends that Japanese women are not better than men. This is very disturbing.

Cover-up silence. A company employee in his 20s from Chiba and that's it? They wait until someone dies and then reports the news. Then jump to 'but in good news passengers and crew on the cruise liner..'

They allowed those two Japanese from Wuhan just to trot off home. And Abe continues to encourage Chinese tourism revenue. This is the outcome.

I imagine the young employee in his 20's has been commuting to Tokyo five days a week.

The CCP has obviously shown they will sacrifice anything for their own self interest, including the reputation of Chinese all around the world. They stay at the top because they trample over everything else.

The question is whether the LDP is approaching this virus with the same standard of ethics. The countries 'appeasing' the CCP so far has the highest infection stats outside China, eg Singapore, Thailand, HK etc. Whilst I'm not saying the virus is out of control here, it'd be fair to say, it could easily be out of control and it's better to be safe than sorry.

I've seen conflicting reports about whether the 70-year-old cab driver had Chinese passengers recently.

Perhaps it's this scenario: Chinese person who didn't know they were infected (or worse, took enough Tylenol to get their fever down and escape China) got into this fellow's taxi...

Or it could be someone from one of the recent evacuation flights who either wasn't showing any symptoms or turned down the screening.

So far, efforts to contain this viral outbreak have been by and large successful, despite the more than 1,100 fatalities worldwide. This contagion has the potential to be truly disastrous, which explains the Draconian attempts to contain it.

The seasonal flu currently making the rounds over here is said to have killed 12,000, but it has a mortality rate of only 0.015%. That means 80,000,000 have gotten sick, and 12,000 have died. For comparison, the flu from China is said to have a mortality rate in excess of 2%. That means that if 80,000,000 were to get sick, over 1,600,000 million would die, instead of 12,000.

The Spanish Flu of 1918-1919 is said to have had a mortality rate of around 20%. In the scenario where 80 million get sick, that would result in 16 million dying. I have read that about 20% of the world's population back then got sick, and there were perhaps 100,000,000 fatalities. With a world population of about 1.8 billion, and 20% of those who got infected dying, that means the Spanish Flu was responsible for the passing of 4% of the entire population of Earth.

It is understandable that medical experts are concerned about this latest flu, even if the mortality rate is "only" 2%.

@when the first case of this disease popped up, I said to myself, gotta stop all travel from China to Japan. That didn’t happen and now look!

So did a lot of us in fact to world not just Japan. The public is not as stupid as one thinks and many can think/read for ourselves. Most are not aware of this virus and think of it as the common cold. I have been asking the question why was China researching this virus where it had never been a problem before and so widespread since the black plague. Is there more to the tale that we are not getting as to why China would pursue such a course and why the super rich even funded such a study? Still no answers from anyone.

And a 70yr old patient of the infected doctor in Wakayama is now himself infected! I'm sure they'll be a lot more cases from this hospital in the near future. And the pandemic begins in Japan thanks The Abe government not banning all travel from China.

if you look at all of the deaths, seems they are people 60+ of age. Influenza also takes out allot of folks these ages. For me, I do extreme exercise and lots of supplements until they get a vaccine ready

Ask yourselves, after generations of the animal markets in China, why this virus appeared now.

There's more to this virus than we are being told. I can't see why suddenly this new virus came from the animal markets in China.

I doubt this virus started from a live animal market.

Narita today ,34 arrivals from china/hong kong and 13 cancellations . At haneda 19 arrivals and 7 cancellations

All taxi drivers must be tested?

Can they trace the passengers who rode the taxi if they paid by credit card within the last 14 days??

Who did the mother in law see and contact before, and during the time she was sick.

Also talk to those contacts who they got in touch with. It’s like a domino effect. This is how it spreads.

therefore everyone admitted in the hospital MUST be tested for Coronavirus

Thise medical experts in the hospital who saw the mother in law must also be tested and those who they hot in touch with. Isolate them quick for testing.

Dr. Theopolis, ban all Chinese ? Do you know it means half of the world ?

No, it doesn’t.

If the people of the world could take the word of the CCP seriously, things could be clearer. While these people are in charge, the default position must be they are hiding the truth. They have a long record of doing this.

Jimizo, unlike in you country, you can charge anyone with any lies. In China, you have use facts. Do you have any evidences ?

Jimizo, unlike in you country, you can charge anyone with any lies.

Which country would that be?

In China you have use facts

Trying to hide trains after accidents? Facts?

I’ve spent quite a bit of time in China and the company I work for has a lot of business there. I haven’t come across too many Chinese in my line of work who trust the CCP.

It's clear this spreads quickly without symptoms. Doing a vector spreadsheet now would be pretty terrible. Time for a quick holiday for everyone, 14 days stay home. Food and services delivery to the curb or neighbourhood but not to the door. Get that remote work going. Cheaper than the alternative

A new case in Wakayama today, with apparently no direct relation with the case yesterday of the doctor

Paper masks are mostly dust masks. Dust! Not much tinier viruses and bacteria which easily pass through the mask. Depend on washing your hands and coughing into a handkerchief or towel, like in the days before these wretched and landfill-bound p.masks. Protest and demand soap in all restrooms. That would be a very positive change. Meanwhile, wash your hands as others above have advised.

The CCP has obviously shown they will sacrifice anything for their own self interest, including the reputation of Chinese all around the world. They stay at the top because they trample over everything else.

The question is whether the LDP is approaching this virus with the same standard of ethics.

That's an EXCELLENT point!

If you ask me, the CCP and LDP are 2 cheeks of the same behind. The only difference is that the LDP is dealing with a very meek and docile population. BUT if this was to really go off the rails and the levels of contagion were to cause a domestic panic, don't be surprised if the LDP act in a very similar way.

I have lived in Japan for 15 years, and hardly getting sick after I started doing this very common practice (they teach it in many places, but mostly in Japanese language): gargle for 45 seconds and wash your hands for 25 with warm soapy water. Use a mask during flu season.

How to: gargle at minimum with warm to hot water several times a day. If you get a sore throat, you can do two things 1. Get the Iodine gargle at the drug store (try not to use it unless you have a sore throat, because Iodine in large amounts isn't all that good for you.) 2. If you feel like you are going to get sick and have a sore throat, dissolve a packet of Kakkonto (Chinese Traditional Medicine powder for colds. Next time you go, ask your doctor for Tsumura #1) in about a half a cup to a cup of hot water. Gargle and swallow that in little bits. It stings like heck and is kind of strange-sounding, but I NEVER get sick if I do that. I don't know if it brings up my tonsillary immune system or what, but it works. I got sick 11 times the first year, 12 times the 2nd year, and the third year I started gargling during the flu season and it went down to 0-2 colds per year.

If you want to try to keep from getting the virus and you have a western nose, forget the normal masks. All the air comes in around the nose. I got some good masks at the hardware store with a little circular valve in the front, three for about ¥500. It provides real protection without making me look like a freak (I also got one of those serious masks with the replaceable filters, but I think it's overkill and scares the kids.

Finally, I also gently rinse my nose out and clean my eyes and eyelashes with warm water when I get back from being around a lot of people. Those are also mucus membranes, even if they don't actively intake air into our bodies. I would rather be safe than sorry.

Anyway, wash hands, gargle, and get a decent mask (especially if you are riding the train, for pete's sake!) and you will be a lot safer.

@richard burgan: Japanese are very conscious of cleanliness, so I thought. Generally that's true from my experience. But it's not always true. For example, when I first visited medical facilities I didn't see any place for staff to wash their hands or wearing surgical gloves. I saw people wearing face masks to protect themselves from disease. and I discovered that beds aren't always changed between patients. What?? When I worked in medical facilities it was wash you hands whenever entering or leaving a room, wear gloves for direct contact, change the exam tables before each new patient, and mask to prevent infecting others

NOT so sure where you were that you were an actual witness to that effect, but I have been a patient and visitor of many hospitals throughout Japan in my lifetime and not once have I seen what you described. Now from my experience of a US hospital I have been a patient in an overpriced room with dust on the bottom of the bed, not swept properly and trash cans not emptied all the way. Staff did not wash their hands either and used the same dirty towels to wipe rooms from one to the other. So I would bank on Japan hospitals anyday and by the way I get a full team of doctors for less than half of the overcharge prices in the US.