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Virus cases jump to 346 in S Korea; China daily count drops

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By TONG-HYUNG KIM

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142 new cases has been just reported now bringing total to 346. That's a huge spike in numbers.

12 ( +12 / -0 )

@Aly: how I said in another article, today I read this news about the cases around the world:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.aljazeera.com/amp/news/2020/01/countries-confirmed-cases-coronavirus-200125070959786.html

If you read it, they say the cases in the cruise ship are not considered Japanese cases according to the WHO guidance. I think Japanese cases will surge anyway, but I don't get why people don't want to be properly informed and create their own narrative. And I don't get why you are using this article about the situation in South Korea to speak about the Diamond Princess. There are many articles for that. About this article, the situation in East Asia is becoming serious also outside China. And since the article speaks about it a little bit, I am afraid for my Country, Italy. The cases aren't 14 but 16 in two different regions. Let's hope it will remain this way.

10 ( +15 / -5 )

"Japan's cases, at a guess, are probably around 500"

Well, you guessed it wrong.

As of 21/02/20, from Worldometer:

Korea - 205 cases

Japan- 108 cases

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/coronavirus-cases/#case-distribution-outside-china

A little less guess please; in a minute you're going to tell us this entire epidemic started in Japan.

10 ( +14 / -4 )

While SK's huge jump has been troubling, it is important to remember that the majority of the currently 634 confirmed cases including the 2 deaths on the so called international conveyance are Japanese

Nonsense.

634 on the ship does not count and you know it.

9 ( +13 / -4 )

For the record:

A total of 634 people on the quarantined Diamond Princess cruise ship docked at Yokohama had tested positive for the virus as of February 21. Meanwhile, an elderly couple that was on the ship has died. 

Japan does not include the people on board as part of its national tally, in accordance with WHO guidance. Japan's national tally is 93. An 80-year-old had also previously died from the virus. 

Out of the 93

80 were either Chinese tourist or Japanese coming back from Wuhan,

9 ( +13 / -4 )

Japan's cases, at a guess, are probably around 500. 

This is unhelpful. I get the sense you have got yourself into a real state over coronavirus, and it is concerning, but guesses and speculations aren’t doing anyone any favours.

Sorry if this sounds a bit irritable but I have a coworker who has been constantly telling us about stories she’s read telling her about what’s supposedly really going on.

As I said, unhelpful.

9 ( +12 / -3 )

I'm gonna guess:

South Korea has the most cases outside China.

8 ( +13 / -5 )

Aly RustomToday  08:34 am JST

While SK's huge jump has been troubling, it is important to remember that the majority of the currently 634 confirmed cases including the 2 deaths on the so called international conveyance are Japanese and the gov needs to acknowledge that to keep the public better informed. Japan's cases, at a guess, are probably around 500. 

Wrong. "Japan's cases" as of this moment are 105 infections.

Infections on the Diamond Princess are not counted and categorized as "other".

South Korea now has 204 cases.

https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6

8 ( +14 / -6 )

Chinese researchers just confirmed that patients can transmit the coronavirus without showing symptoms. A woman passed it to 5 relatives. Chinese researchers have confirmed a case of asymptomatic transmission of the new coronavirus: A 20-year-old woman from Wuhan passed it to five of her family members but never got physically sick herself. The case study is the first concrete evidence that a person showing no symptoms can pass the coronavirus to others — a fact that could make curbing the outbreak even more challenging.

Your Honor the People calls XI to the stand.

8 ( +8 / -0 )

@Caliboy: despite we are trying to explain that by providing some sources, they don't understand. They don't want to understand.

7 ( +11 / -4 )

@Tom: well, obviously we must consider the WHO, it's so obvious, so we are wasting only our time. Since the article is about South Korea situation, only until some days ago it was praised as a model to fight the virus, despite some methods were considered not very democratic:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/south-korea-tracks-virus-patients-travelsand-publishes-them-online-11581858000

But it's obvious something went really wrong. :/

7 ( +11 / -4 )

I hope some people understand those numbers are human beings who are suffering, their nationality doesn't care. Those users that are playing with the statistics only for their agenda should reflect more.

7 ( +11 / -4 )

@John: it's according to WHO guidance that the cases in the ship are separated cases, read the article that I linked. It's not a "personal choice". Sigh...

7 ( +11 / -4 )

"634 on the ship does not count and you know it."

The graph on the link I've already posted is clear; Diamond Princess cases are counted separately.

And again:

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/coronavirus-cases/#case-distribution-outside-china

Only some "guessers" want to tell us differently.

6 ( +11 / -5 )

@Tom: I think we must consider the WHO guidance obviously, not some "guessers", so we are wasting our time.

6 ( +10 / -4 )

"But it's obvious something went really wrong. :/"

So wrong they are now number 2 in infected cases, right after China.

6 ( +11 / -5 )

Interestingly, the Koreans are disinfecting public places which China had done.

I would like to see Japan do this too..

6 ( +11 / -5 )

142 new cases today in S Korea, making their total 346.

And you know its now considered serious since Seoul has now even banned mass demonstrations... thats almost like banning kimchi.

6 ( +7 / -1 )

@Samit Basu

You stated the following on Feb 19:

I won't lie.

> I try to stay away from both Chinese and Japanese right now.

Japan is Wuhan corona virus infested with untraceable random infections popping up across Japan, whether you like to admit it or not.

By your standards South Korea is "corona virus infested" with "untraceable random infections popping up" across South Korea. Should we try to stay away from South Koreans? Please advise.

6 ( +10 / -4 )

I do not get the infantile competition to see who has the most or least infections. The virus does not discriminate against nationality.

6 ( +6 / -0 )

Everybody should stop worrying about the numbers of people infected by country/nationality it global or world problem now. Pointing fingers isn't going to help.

5 ( +7 / -2 )

@Peeping_Tom: don't say these things, you want to defend Japanese government!!!!

4 ( +11 / -7 )

Colds spread. Remember back when you were a kid? Its a wonder you survived isn't it? "Oh, but this is different!", you say? How is it different exactly? Yeah, it causes pneumonia and that's no fun. But can anyone provide some actual factual information? Most deaths are in Wuhan and most deaths are old people. Those are some facts for you. What they tell you is that China handled the whole situation so poorly and primarily simply because they even TRIED to handle it at all. Second is that if you are young to middle age and healthy you should treat this like any other cold/flu season.

4 ( +7 / -3 )

The infection inside the ship isn't indicative about the spread inside the Country, this is why the WHO considers those cases separated or it's a mess of numbers and ESPECIALLY it doesn't help to map the origin of the contamination that is the most important thing right now. The ship was already contaminated and as happens also with norovirus, the virus spread fast.

4 ( +8 / -4 )

utorsaToday  12:55 pm JST

@Samit Basu

You stated the following on Feb 19:

I won't lie.

I try to stay away from both Chinese and Japanese right now.*

Japan is Wuhan corona virus infested with untraceable random infections popping up across Japan, whether you like to admit it or not.

By your standards South Korea is "corona virus infested" with "untraceable random infections popping up" across South Korea. Should we try to stay away from South Koreans? Please advise.

Don't ask for advice from some one carrying totally different type of virus infested with traceable random infections. We do NOT need any ugly competition here on covid-19 between Japan and SK.

4 ( +8 / -4 )

Anyway I am sure enough it wasn't a good idea hosting that ship, and it will have some consequences in the next days INSIDE Japan.

2 ( +8 / -6 )

This article explains the situation in South Korea, how it was a failure and not a success how some people are trying to say here.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.businessinsider.my/coronavirus-cases-soar-south-korea-efforts-turn-containment-2020-2/amp/

If having almost 400 cases in a couple of days can be considered a success in preventing the spread, I don't know it. I get the feeling they were covering the real situation like ANY government does.

2 ( +10 / -8 )

Korea is up another 100 or so cases on top of the 100+ reported this morning.

Their total is now 433.

Its growing exponentially there.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

I am not Japanese, nor am I South Korean. Nor is my nationality of a cruise ship. If I get Covid 19 in any of those places, where does my number go? Well that depends on what information you are trying to convey. And if I go back to my own country, what then? Do I become a case of my own country now? Does my number in the other place just vanish now? And I have not even gotten into what to do when it comes to listing death and recovery.

0 ( +9 / -9 )

The nationality certainly doesn't matter, but where they're located is of course important for allocating resources, tracking the source and preventing further infections. Wherever the person is being tested/treated is probably the most helpful way to think about case numbers. This seems obvious... even if the ship wasn't on Japanese dry land, the sick were being tested by Japanese doctors with Japanese resources and it's likely now that a lot of people have disembarked in Japan that it will be the source of further infection within Japan. Counting the ship as something separate is useful if you're only interested in the origin of the virus, but we already know the origin of the virus on the ship so everything else falls within Japanese jurisdiction. Any other argument is just a pissing contest between between people who are treating the whole situation like a competition.

0 ( +3 / -3 )

Given the demographics, the population of China is huge as is India. One wanders why the count decreased so quickly when in the rest of the world is increasing. How are they and did they do it so quickly?

That also brings to question how a hospital could have been built within 10 days.

One also can wander why in India and other SE Asian countries, there are no data on the virus. They have a huge population and borders China.

Add to that, what is happening to N Korea when S Korea has so many.

Would they be able to control it as in China?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

this tells the story that even if the government is prepare, do everything possible, if you have patients who does not listen to the warnings, pandemic can happen to any country. patient 31 in Korea refuse to test the virus test twice and continued with her business , She is member of the cult church group with 200000 members and they just build a church in Wuhan China last year.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

even wearing masks at home

what is that going to do? Get Public Health professionals involved and deal with data

-1 ( +3 / -4 )

@Aly: he didn't answer at all. That doesn't explain the sudden spike in two days. Also the Korean government admitted it failed.

-1 ( +9 / -10 )

People that been exposed, should be put in anti viral drugs as a prevented matter, the good news these people will not be traveling to America

-3 ( +3 / -6 )

Update- SK numbers have jumped to 346!

What is going on over there?!?!

Take it easy. What do you want us to do? Get into the same state of panic you have got yourself into?

-3 ( +5 / -8 )

@Alex80

That doesn't explain the sudden spike in two days.

It's not the case of hundreds of people checking into hospitals reporting sudden illness, it's the case of hundreds of people being told by the government that they could be infected, then confirmed by testing. As such, most people aren't even showing symptoms right now.

-3 ( +8 / -11 )

At this stage it's rather obvious that COVID19 is spreading like there's no tomorrow. And still no real grasp of it. Even the issue of whether an asymptomatic infected person can infect others appears to be going back and forth among medical experts. The real important number, as far as I am concerned, is not how many infected per se but how many recoveries. The world's media don't seem to be putting as much emphasis on this figure as they are with infection cases and deaths, which is adding to the panic mentality. China did nothing to stop the massive flow of Chinese tourists visiting other countries in January and early February so an enormous amount of contact with people already infected may have likely occured. I would not at all be surprised if Japan followed South Korea in explosive infection numbers in short time.

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

I am not Japanese, nor am I South Korean. Nor is my nationality of a cruise ship. If I get Covid 19 in any of those places, where does my number go? Well that depends on what information you are trying to convey. And if I go back to my own country, what then? Do I become a case of my own country now? Does my number in the other place just vanish now? And I have not even gotten into what to do when it comes to listing death and recovery.

excellent excellent point. This is why I was so against the ship being classified by itself. It causes confusion. Moreover, we don't know the exact numbers of nationals from which country were infected. I personally think this was done for political reasons so the J-gov would not lose face, and it was reckless as it doesn't allow us to get a better picture.

-5 ( +6 / -11 )

@Aly: contamination in South Korea increased by some hundreds in a couple of days. The Country had only 30 cases until 2-3 days ago. I don't doubt the situation can worse also in Japan, but currently the huge and sudden spike in numbers is in South Korea, and it's weird because it was VERY sudden. And all of this without any cruise ship.

-5 ( +6 / -11 )

Oh ropeman I just realized you reported that too. sorry. didn't see it before.

-7 ( +3 / -10 )

@Aly Rustom

Update- SK numbers have jumped to 346!

What the F is going on over there?!?!

Nothing. Korea is the only place where the government is actively tracing all those who have come in contact with prior positive cases.

In other word, the government people comes to your house and test you to confirm if you are infected even though you didn't know you were exposed to the virus.

While I was listening to BBC News during the morning commute, a medical export on air was praising the Korean handling of the corona virus containment while criticising Japan's, more specifically the Diamond Princess outbreak which was man-made.

-7 ( +7 / -14 )

Aly: contamination in South Korea increased by some hundreds in a couple of days. The Country had only 30 cases until 2-3 days ago. I don't doubt the situation can worse also in Japan, but currently the huge and sudden spike in numbers is in South Korea, and it's weird because it was VERY sudden. And all of this without any cruise ship.

That's an excellent point Alex, but I think Samit answered your post

Korea is the only place where the government is actively tracing all those who have come in contact with prior positive cases.

In other word, the government people comes to your house and test you to confirm if you are infected even though you didn't know you were exposed to the virus.

I have a FEELING that if they did that here the number would be in the thousands.

You have to remember there is a political and economic element to this too

-7 ( +5 / -12 )

he didn't answer at all. That doesn't explain the sudden spike in two days.

Sure it does. That the Koreans are more vigorous in testing. We also saw a spike in Wuhan when THEY changed THEIR testing process.

Also the Korean government admitted it failed.

Maybe. I can't comment on that as I haven't been following what they have been doing. I HAVE been following what the J- gov has been doing and what I can tell you is THEY definitely failed

-7 ( +6 / -13 )

Aly Rustom

Moreover, we don't know the exact numbers of nationals from which country were infected.

Apparently Korean newspaper websites had no problem in discovering and printing the nationalities of everyone infected on the Diamond Princess.

Samit Basu

Korea is the only place where the government is actively tracing all those who have come in contact with prior positive cases.In other word, the government people comes to your house and test you to confirm if you are infected even though you didn't know you were exposed to the virus.

Seems reasonable. I wonder why this wasn't done in Japan?

Alex80Today 10:44 am JST

@Aly: he didn't answer at all. That doesn't explain the sudden spike in two days. Also the Korean government admitted it failed.

Yawn. Link to the Korean government admitting it "failed" please.

-7 ( +6 / -13 )

The graph on the link I've already posted is clear; Diamond Princess cases are counted separately.

@Peeping_Tom On your link, yes they are. But worldometers is not the end all, be all and the numbers do not tell the whole story.

See the thing is that the ship, despite quarantine, has been having significant contact with Japan and has been in Japanese waters for weeks for quarantine. One could also start labeling quarantined hospitals as separate. Would that clear up any confusion? Or is it the international nature of the ship that warrants this? Well, people from other nations elsewhere have also been repatriated. Look, whether one chooses to put the ship with or separate from Japan depends on their intents and purposes, some of which will be legit either way.

-8 ( +1 / -9 )

If you read it, they say the cases in the cruise ship are not considered Japanese cases according to the WHO guidance.

I understand that. I also understand that MANY things the WHO does are politically motivated. I should know. My father worked for WHO his whole life. It was the only job he ever had.

I think Japanese cases will surge anyway, but I don't get why people don't want to be properly informed and create their own narrative.

I agree.

And I don't get why you are using this article about the situation in South Korea to speak about the Diamond Princess.

That's a fair point. Let me answer it. The title reads,

South Korea becomes newest front in shifting virus outbreak

Because I believe that it should be Japan that is the newest front in shifting virus outbreak not SK. If we count the ship, our numbers would be higher and we need to prepare for that.

-8 ( +6 / -14 )

While I was listening to BBC News during the morning commute, a medical export on air was praising the Korean handling of the corona virus containment while criticising Japan's, more specifically the Diamond Princess outbreak which was man-made.

This is the one I heard TODAY. Is this the one you were listening to?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8A9BT3lAGHU

The BBC has been pretty critical of Japan's handling of the ship in general, and they are right to be so.

-8 ( +5 / -13 )

Update- SK numbers have jumped to 346!

What is going on over there?!?!

-9 ( +4 / -13 )

By today, I mean Friday.

-9 ( +1 / -10 )

While SK's huge jump has been troubling, it is important to remember that the majority of the currently 634 confirmed cases including the 2 deaths on the so called international conveyance are Japanese and the gov needs to acknowledge that to keep the public better informed. Japan's cases, at a guess, are probably around 500. We need to stop this "international convenance" crap and start counting the cases here as domestic as they are in Japan's territory and could pose a risk. This is not the time to play politics.

In the United States, 34 people have tested positive for the virus, including 18 who returned home from a quarantined cruise ship in Japan.

I fear that this number will rise in Japan too with all the people disembarking and not being quarantined. J-gov's handling of this mess has been ABISMAL to say the least.

-11 ( +9 / -20 )

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