Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe says Japan will impose a 14-day quarantine on all visitors from China and South Korea before they are allowed an entry permit
March 5, 2020, 12:11 PM
4 min read
BANGKOK -- The Latest on the virus outbreak (all times local):
6 p.m.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe says Japan will impose a 14-day quarantine on all visitors from China and South Korea before they are allowed an entry permit.
They will be sent to a government facility for the quarantine and will not be allowed to use public transportation, Abe said Thursday as officials stepped up their efforts against the spread of the virus.
Japan has more than 1,050 confirmed cases, including 706 from a quarantined cruise ship, as transmission inside Japan has accelerated. Abe said the current week or two is a crucial time for Japan to get the outbreak under control as his government faces pressure to contain the virus ahead of the Tokyo Olympics.
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5:30 p.m.
Authorities in Switzerland say a 74-year-old woman infected with the new virus has died, the first confirmed death in the country.
The Federal Office of Public Health said Thursday that the death was reported by authorities in the western canton of Vaud. The woman had been hospitalized since Tuesday.
As of Wednesday afternoon, 58 infections had been confirmed in Switzerland.
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5:25 p.m.
Sri Lankan health authorities say they have decided to quarantine all Sri Lankan passengers arriving from Italy, South Korea and Iran for 14 days.
They will be quarantined at a center to be set up at a state-run hospital formerly used to treat leprosy patients on the outskirts of the capital, Colombo. Soldiers are now converting the hospital into a quarantine center.
Sri Lanka officially eliminated leprosy in 1995 and the facility was used for the country’s 16 remaining patients, who will now be transferred to another hospital.
More than 104,000 Sri Lankans reside in Italy, with more than 60% in the Lombardy region that has been hit hard by the virus. More than 20,000 Sri Lankans reside in South Korea.
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5:25 p.m.
The virus outbreak couldn’t have come at a worse time for millions of Hindus who are preparing to celebrate Holi, the festival in which people smear each others' faces with colorful powder.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other Hindu nationalist leaders said they won't attend any celebrations on March 10 because of the coronavirus outbreak and are advising people to exercise restraint.
Modi tweeted that he would not celebrate Holi as experts have advised that mass gatherings should be reduced.
Community leaders are canceling street celebrations as well as large gatherings of people in condominiums.
Across India and Nepal and in countries with Indian migrants, Hindus celebrate Holi, the joyous festival of color, smearing one another with red and yellow powders and spraying each other with squirt guns. Water-filled balloons are also used to color each other.
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4 p.m.
China says a visit by its president, Xi Jinping, to Japan has been called off because both countries are focusing on combating the virus outbreak.
Foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian says the two sides will be in close communication about a new time for the visit.
"The two countries both agree that President Xi Jinping's state visit to Japan must take place under the most appropriate timing, environment and atmosphere, and must be a complete success," Zhao said at a daily news briefing on Thursday.
The visit had been expected in April.
China has striven to improve ties with Japan as both come under U.S. tariffs meant to punish them for their trade practices. However, mutual suspicion runs high on both sides, driven in China primarily by memories of Japan's brutal occupation of parts of the country last century and China's claim to islands in the East China Sea controlled by Japan.
