44 more people on cruise ship test positive for virus; some elderly to be allowed off

why not make the boat sale around at least... i am sure they could do week long trips with no special issues...

just go around the world ... must be cheaper than using port fees and electricity plug

The info to be gleaned from this is that cruise ships are a great habitat...for viruses!

I didn't know this but apparently outbreaks of flu and norovirus are not uncommon on cruise ships. They really are breeding grounds for diseases. The problem is exacerbated because cruises tend to attract older clientele some of whom are already infirm. I have never been attracted to the idea of being stuck in a large tin can in the middle of the ocean in close proximity to thousands of others, and this has only helped to reinforce that fact. With the increase in cruise ship tourism, operators really are going to have to look at improved sanitation and air filtering - and stop those buffets!!

Good to see that the people in the photo are wearing masks over their chins....

Maybe, just maybe the virus enters through beard follicles. :)

Let us take a look at some numbers:

So far they have tested 713 people. 218 have tested positive. That means 31% of the sample is positive. Which means from ship of 3800, 31% could be positive. About 1178 cases.

Now the R nought for the coronavirus is 2. In other words, 1 person with the virus will give to 2 people.

Now. 218 have tested positive, If they were not caught. They would have given the virus to 436 people( 2x218).

So the quarantine just saved 436 people. and many more people were just saved.

If the 436 people caught the virus they would have given to 872 people and so on.

Thank you Japan, you just saved the world.

The old who have health issues should atleast now be moved to the hotel where the other people were quarrantined in Katsuura

@Alex Einz

The ship does leave port occasionally to dump wastewater and to make fresh water.

@ Farmboy

All passengers will be given a full refund and some extra expenses will also be covered by the company that runs the cruise liner.

At the moment they can test a maximum of 300 people a day but hope eventually to be able to expand this to 1,000 people a day.

Curious to know why only 300? Is it simply a mater of limited test kits? Does this expose one of the many weaknesses in our ability to test, manage and treat this when it becomes a pandemic?

More curious to know how Wuhan is able to test 50x, 100x that many. How many in China are going untested? Does it raise questions on the total infected numbers we are being provided by China?

Do we have stats on how many of those who tested positive have now recovered?

this is their policy, it will only change if other countries such as US, Canada or EU gets involved.

They can test all of them if they want to, but they do not, why do you think they are testing few hundred at a time, do you think they don't have kits? it's their policy/decision from the very top of the chain.

oh, they don't have facility, they do, they have 18,000 beds, the Olympic village, but they won't use it.

It was puzzling but listening to other countries broadcast, you can get information not available in Japan.

The fundamental problem is that these critical decision are made by politicians who knows nothing about infectious diseases, they should let the medical people lead this mission and have military support like other countries such as U.S , Canada or Korea.

@Kaerimashita

This is a good source for official numbers. https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

ZombieNemesis Today 02:58 pm JST

At the moment they can test a maximum of 300 people a day but hope eventually to be able to expand this to 1,000 people a day.

Curious to know why only 300? Is it simply a mater of limited test kits? Does this expose one of the many weaknesses in our ability to test, manage and treat this when it becomes a pandemic?

safe testing conditions are limited for one-at-a-time tests, consider isolation rooms with individual work bays, all with negative air pressure, same with the incubators as you don't want air transfer. It's not like a lot of normal petri dish tests where as long as the dishes don't touch there is no transfer and you could normall borrow a lot of egg incubators to use, not in this case. It costs a lot of money and some time to set up one testroom, especially the air cleaner to deal with the waste air as you don't want 'that nasty stuff' getting free. Also most people working in this sort of environment have to be pendantic, and their not easy to find let alone train, so it's not a fast process to ramp-up. I actually don't think their doing a bad job considering the timeline from it's appearance to now.

More curious to know how Wuhan is able to test 50x, 100x that many. How many in China are going untested? Does it raise questions on the total infected numbers we are being provided by China?

yup, there was an article on the taiwan news on this, I won't comment as to it's veracity.

what i meant was, why not just keep cruising... must be bloody boring to sit in that grey yokohama port.

So far they have tested 713 people. 218 have tested positive. That means 31% of the sample is positive. Which means from ship of 3800, 31% could be positive. About 1178 cases.

That assume the people tested are taken randomly from the passengers, that is obviously not the case, they are testing the people that for some reason are more likely to be infected, having symptoms or very close contact with previously identified patients.

Also the reproduction rate was calculated from a very different situation, if everybody gets isolated even without symptoms (as in the ship) the calculation is quite different.

Curious to know why only 300? Is it simply a mater of limited test kits? Does this expose one of the many weaknesses in our ability to test, manage and treat this when it becomes a pandemic?

At this point it is not a kit (like something you can buy and use) but a procedure in a lab, the technique is extremely sensitive, but because of that requires special facilities and carefully trained personal to be done properly, a test tube being opened improperly can make every sample processed in that are appear as if it were positive because of contamination.

Japan has the capacity using many laboratories to conduct or improve this kind of quickly developed diagnostic tests, but public opinion is hugely against it because the work frequently requires facilities equipped to process samples of dangerous pathogens (BSL3 or BSL4 labs).

Right now people can see clearly why these labs are needed, but as soon as the outbreak finish again people will be commenting about how unnecessary they are and how Japan can just bring test from other countries, etc. etc.

Video here from an Americam who was on the boat and is now in a Tokyo hospital . She says she tested positve but has very litlle symptoms.

https://youtu.be/idTWP5FiPS4

how Japan can just bring test from other countries, etc. etc.

and that assume the kits from the US work. There are reports that the American kits are flawed.

Some coronavirus testing kits sent around the world are not working properly

https://www.livescience.com/coronavirus-testing-kits-flawed.html

As experts hustled to create diagnostic testing kits for the novel coronavirus, something went awry. At least some of the testing kits that were sent across the U.S. and to dozens of other countries aren't working properly,

Japan should stick to own kits for now.

At least some of the testing kits that were sent across the U.S. and to dozens of other countries aren't working properly,

Japan should stick to own kits for now.

Even the Japanese kits are flawed. One guy tested negative twice before showing symptoms of the virus.

Even the Japanese kits are flawed. One guy tested negative twice before showing symptoms of the virus.

The procedure is to test someone three times before you considered virus free. The reason being is that the test won't catch the virus at an early stage. He was tested two times in the early stages, but then tested positive at the end of the 14 day period. They used the same kit for all three tests.

Even the Japanese kits are flawed. One guy tested negative twice before showing symptoms of the virus.

The procedure is to test someone three times before you considered virus free. The reason being is that the test won't catch the virus at an early stage. He was tested two times in the early stages, but then tested positive at the end of the 14 day period. They used the same kit for all three tests.

Here is more information:

It was two not one:

One of the two, a man in his 50s who returned from the Chinese city of Wuhan on the first Japanese evacuation flight on January 29, previously twice tested negative for the virus.

However, a third test 12 days later found the man

(The incubation period is 14 days)

The second evacuee, a Japanese man in his 40s, returned from Wuhan on January 30 and initially tested negative for the virus, but was diagnosed after a second test on Monday.

https://fit.thequint.com/health-news/two-japanese-people-diagnosed-with-coronavirus-after-initially-testing-negative

The used the same kits for all the tests.

Alex Einz

what i meant was, why not just keep cruising... must be bloody boring to sit in that grey yokohama port.

If you're stuck in a room without windows, it doesn't matter where you are. Might as well be close to supplies, and have the cruise companies money spent on more onboard movie options instead of cruising fuel.

Even the Japanese kits are flawed. One guy tested negative twice before showing symptoms of the virus.

That is not a flaw of the kit, if the sample do not contain viruses it is not possible to detect them. This happens with all infectious diseases. The only way to know the person has been infected a this time is to count back to the likely date of infection after it has been diagnosed. Expecting a test that can detect infection instantaneously when it happens is not realistic.

why not make the boat sale around at least...

It does actually. Every two days or so it heads out to sea to exchange ballast water and dump waste outside the 12nm marine pollution zone. They head out at night and return in the morning. You can track the ship here if you want. It's the blue ship moored on the Daikokufuto.

https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/centerx:139.691/centery:35.454/zoom:14

They’re not testing them because they are dreading the results. It’s much easier to say we don’t know if they’re infected or not than to risk finding out there are 1500 infected and risk damaging Japan’s clean image Ezoe sully with the Games coming up. Those who know Japan will understand.

Not sure, could be, may be perhaps, are better than a concrete number of the infected. The latter entails much more responsibility.

@zombienemesis and you know, this would explain why it’s taking so long to get everybody tested. 300 a day? Yeah, now it makes sense.

hopefully, they will be able to bump it up to 1000 a day, so that way this quarantine can end sooner rather than later.

The info to be gleaned from this is that cruise ships are a great habitat...for viruses!

Believe it or not, people have known about this for decades!

Tokyo taxi driver with virus.

Yeah, just saw that too.

And so, the defecation has hit the oscillation.....

That photo. Clearly shows why masks, aside from not being fine enough to prevent viruses from passing through, are just useless. Hanging under the nose, off the chin. Just a showpiece. I see this everywhere here in Tokyo. Ditch the masks. Looking forward to this fad finishing so we can see your lovely faces again. Wash your hands.

Just saw in the news. First domestic death from corona virus.

and a taxi driver in Tokyo has tested positive.

That photo. Clearly shows why masks, aside from not being fine enough to prevent viruses from passing through, are just useless. Hanging under the nose, off the chin. Just a showpiece. I see this everywhere here in Tokyo. Ditch the masks. Looking forward to this fad finishing so we can see your lovely faces again. Wash your hands.

If people would combine the masks with other precautions then good, but for most it just gives a false sense of security. For example, people in my office building aren't afraid of putting their hands all over every doorknob and elevator button they can find, and rarely make use of the free automatic hand sanitizers that are available.

And it’s started. Not stopping all inbound Chinese tourists will lead to a massive outbreak in this country. Excellent job Abe!

Meanwhile in south London, a Chinese woman with the virus ignores advice, calls an Uber and strolls into a public hospital. Nice.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/13/london-coronavirus-patient-turned-up-hospital-uber-taxi

a taxi driver in Tokyo has tested positive.

The taxi driver was quoted as saying by a government official that his passengers may have included a Chinese person.

The same as the Osaka bus driver.

There’s also a case of an infected doctor in Wakayama Pre. It’s not yet known how he contracted the disease.

Given what happen to the bus driver and the taxi driver, it is pretty easy to deducted what happen. A infected Chinese national came in contact with the doctor.

Overall, bad news

Not stopping all inbound Chinese tourists will lead to a massive outbreak in this country.

and the people should stay on the ship. Right?

What country has issued a blanket ban on all Chinese tourists?

First Japanese victim died, a woman in her 80s who hasn't been out of country for a while.

https://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20200213-00010036-abema-soci

神奈川の80代女性が死亡 新型コロナウイルス関連で国内初

Samit read the comments just above yours....

Educator60Feb. 13 10:29 pm JST

The tv news reported that the Kanagawa woman who died is the mother-in-law of the infected Tokyo taxi driver.

Bus driver and taxi driver spread it too passenger

Only the Pneumonia vaccine, will give a defense for the Wuhan Pneumonia death

This is not Japan, if you look at all the natural disasters, Japanese government never drop the ball like this. This is one politician and we all know who he is. This will set back Japan 50 years,and now, all the attentions is in Japan, not in Wuhan, China. The selfishness and self-serving thinking is not Japanese thinking, this person has to go now, go quickly.

https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2020/01/29/800531753/face-masks-what-doctors-say-about-their-role-in-containing-coronavirus says that cheap masks don't work.

That means health care workers interacting with a coronavirus patient should wear a heavy-duty mask called an N95 respirator. These respirators are designed to fit tightly around the nose and mouth, and, when worn correctly, block out at least 95% of small airborne particles, according to the CDC.

N95 respirators require annual training for health care workers, by law, to use in the USA.

MacIntyre notes that cloth masks — which people wash and reuse — are also common in Asian countries. She says there's no evidence to show they have any benefit, and her research suggests they "may actually be harmful," because infrequent washing and moisture retention can make cloth masks a breeding ground for pathogens.

Thank you Japan, you just saved the world.

and yet they are still allow in Chinese tourist from areas that have know to have infected people,

so it seems Japan saves the world unless it gets in the way of milking the tourist of their money

Only the Pneumonia vaccine, will give a defense for the Wuhan Pneumonia death

wrong they have not yet made a vaccine for this virus, could be 6 months away

Only the Pneumonia vaccine, will give a defense for the Wuhan Pneumonia death

the fact has been stated numerous times that Pneumonia has a higher mortality rate than the COVID-19,

yet because Pneumonia is much better known it does not instill fear like COVID-19

How many flu infections have there been this season? How many people have died because of the flu this season? Perhaps the media should offer such comparisons to provide a more accurate perspective on this virus. But that wouldn't provide such sensational headlines.

this is not fake or sensational news, this is happening now, there are over 1000 of Japanese nationals in the ship, is the government willing to let their own people get infected? so far, it looks that way.

Also other country have used( Kaletra) , medication for HIV Infection on few patients and they are now virus free, some young patient didn't need this medication and were able to recover themselves .

Since we don't have any information in Japan , how to Japanese government is treating current infected patients , it's hard to tell if they are using this medication or not.

Maybe they need to follow other developed countries and have a daily conference to share information with rest of us.