Coronavirus: Death toll mounts to 1,367 in China, Japan sees first casualty

The Chinese province at the centre of the coronavirus outbreak reported a record rise in deaths and thousands more infections using a broader case definition on Thursday. The total deaths in China mounted to 1,367.

 

Also, Japan became the third place outside mainland China to suffer a fatality.

 

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.

 

Two taxi drivers, one of them in the capital Tokyo, have also tested positive, raising the possibility that it could be passed on through their passengers.

 

On the Diamond Princess cruise liner quarantined in the port of Yokohama, 44 new cases were confirmed. Two Indians have been tested positive on the cruise.

 

But in some good news for the 3,500-odd passengers and crew who have been stuck onboard since February 3, Japan said it would allow some elderly people who have tested negative for the coronavirus to disembark ahead of schedule.

 

Japanese Health Minister Katsunobu Kato told reporters that a woman in her 80s living in Kanagawa prefecture, which borders Tokyo, had died.