By Ken Moritsugu and Mari Yamaguchi, BEIJING China
Japan on
Friday reported 41 new cases of a virus on a cruise ship that’s been
quarantined in Yokohama harbor while the death toll in mainland China rose to
636, including a doctor who got in trouble with authorities in the communist
country for sounding an early warning about the disease threat.
Two docked cruise ships with thousands of
passengers and crew members remained under 14-day quarantines in Hong Kong and
Japan.
Before Friday’s 41 confirmed cases, 20
passengers who were found infected with the virus were escorted off the Diamond
Princess at Yokohama near Tokyo. About 3,700 people have been confined aboard
the ship.
Japanese Prime Minister
Shinzo Abe announced Thursday that Japan will deny entry of foreign passengers
on another cruise ship heading to Japan — Holland America’s cruise ship
Westerdam, on its way to Okinawa from Hong Kong — because of suspected virus
patients found on the ship.
The new immigration policy takes effect Friday
to ensure border control to prevent the disease from entering and spreading
further into Japan, Abe said.
Meanwhile, a newborn discovered infected 36
hours after birth has become the youngest known patient. The number of people
infected globally has risen to more than 31,000.
Dr. Li Wenliang, 34, had worked at a hospital
in the epicenter of the outbreak in the central city of Wuhan. He was one of
eight medical professionals in Wuhan who tried to warn colleagues and others
when the government did not, writing on his Twitter-like Weibo account that on
Dec. 3 he saw a test sample that indicated the presence of a coronavirus
similar to SARS, which killed nearly 800 people in a 2002-2003 outbreak that
the government initially tried to cover-up.
Li wrote that after he reported seven patients
had contracted the virus, he was visited on Jan. 3 by police, who forced him to
sign a statement admitting to having spread falsehoods and warning him of
punishment if he continued.
A copy of the statement signed by Li and posted
online accused him of making “false statements” and “seriously disturbing
social order.”
“This is a type of illegal behavior!” the
statement said.
Li wrote that he developed a cough on Jan. 10,
fever on Jan. 11 and was hospitalized on Jan. 12, after which he began having
trouble breathing.
He also wrote that he had not in fact had his
medical license revoked, a reference to the sort of extrajudicial retaliation
the communist authorities meet out to rights lawyers and others seen as
troublemakers.
“Please rest easy, I will most certainly
actively cooperate with the treatment and seek to obtain an early discharge!”
Li wrote on Jan. 31. He posted again on Feb. 1, saying he had been confirmed as
having the virus.
On Friday, the Global Times, a Communist Party
newspaper and usual staunch defender of the authorities, reported that “many
said the experience of the eight ‘whistle-blowers’ was evidence of local
authorities’ incompetence to tackle a contagious and deadly virus.”
It quoted Zeng Guang, chief epidemiologist at
the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, as telling the paper’s
editor that “we should highly praise the eight Wuhan residents.”
“They were wise before the outbreak,” Zeng was
quoted as saying. The paper also cited online voices saying local authorities
owe Li an apology. It quoted one posting as saying, “We lost a hero.” “If his
warning could send an alarm, the outbreak might not have continued to worsen,”
the posting said.
“Looking back, his professional sense of
vigilance in particular is worthy of our respect,” the paper said in an
editorial.
The police action against the eight whistle-blowers
also garnered a rare and extremely subtle rebuke from the nation’s highest
court. “We have the responsibility to express to society our legal thoughts
about solving the problem of rumours,” a posting on the court’s Weibo account
said.
Within a half-hour of announcing earlier Friday
that Li was in critical condition, the hospital received nearly 500,000
comments on its social media post, many of them from people hoping Li would
pull through. One wrote: “We are not going to bed. We are here waiting for a
miracle.”
The baby born last Saturday in Wuhan and
confirmed positive just 36 hours after birth became the youngest known person
infected with the virus, authorities said. But precisely how the child became
infected was unclear.
“The baby was immediately separated from the
mother after the birth and has been under artificial feeding. There was no
close contact with the parents, yet it was diagnosed with the disease,” Zeng
Lingkong, director of neonatal diseases at Wuhan Children’s Hospital, told
Chinese TV.
Zeng said other infected mothers have given
birth to babies who tested negative, so it is not yet known if the virus can be
transmitted in the womb.
China finished building a second new hospital
Thursday to isolate and treat patients — a 1,500-bed center in Wuhan. Earlier
this week, another rapidly constructed, 1,000-bed hospital in Wuhan with
prefabricated wards and isolation rooms began taking patients.
Authorities also moved people with milder
symptoms into makeshift hospitals at sports arenas, exhibition halls and other
public spaces.
Altogether, more than 50 million people are
under virtual quarantine in hard-hit Hubei province in an unprecedented — and
unproven — bid to bring the outbreak under control.
China’s official news agency said Friday that
President Xi Jinping urged the U.S. to “respond reasonably” to the virus
outbreak in a phone call with President Donald Trump.
Beijing has complained that the U.S. was flying
its citizens out of Wuhan but not providing any assistance to China.
The White House said Trump “expressed
confidence in China’s strength and resilience in confronting the challenge” of
the outbreak.
In Hong Kong, hospital workers demanding a
shutdown of the territory’s border with mainland China were still on strike.
The territory’s leader Carrie Lam announced a 14-day quarantine of all
travelers entering the city from the mainland starting Saturday, but the
government has refused to seal the border entirely. Taiwan has said it will
refuse entry to all non-citizens or residents who have recently visited Hong
Kong, Macao or China beginning Friday.
Testing of a new antiviral drug was set to
begin on a group of patients Thursday, the official Xinhua News Agency
reported. The drug, Remdesivir, is made by U.S. biotech company Gilead
Sciences. - AP
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