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Post by Admin on Feb 27, 2020 4:44:38 GMT
Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is calling for some events to be delayed or cancelled.
It comes just five months before the Tokyo Olympics get under way.
Al Jazeera's David Stokes reports.
U.S. President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he hopes Tokyo will host the Olympics this summer as planned, as Japan struggles to contain the spread of the new coronavirus.
"They've spent billions of dollars building one of the most beautiful venues I've ever seen. And your prime minister's very proud of it. I hope it's gonna be fine," Trump said at a press conference, while reassuring people in the United States that the risks posed by the virus remain "very low" in his country.
The Tokyo Olympics are scheduled to run from July 24 through Aug. 9.
Asked whether the United States will consider restricting travel to and from South Korea, Italy and other countries that are seeing a surge in infection cases, Trump said his government "may do that," but that now is "not the right time."
The U.S. State Department has already raised its four-level travel advisory to Japan and South Korea, which have seen large spikes in virus cases.
Japan is now a level 2 country, which requires "increased caution" while South Korea is at level 3, which urges U.S. citizens to "reconsider travel."
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Post by Admin on Feb 29, 2020 5:27:12 GMT
A British man has become the first UK citizen to die from coronavirus after being infected on the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan.
He is the sixth passenger to die from Covid-19, the disease caused by the virus, Japan's health ministry said.
Another person has tested positive for the virus in England, which they caught in the UK.
The total number of coronavirus cases in the UK now stands at 20.
Confirming the latest UK case, Professor Chris Whitty, chief medical officer for England, said: "It is not yet clear whether they contracted it directly or indirectly from an individual who had recently returned from abroad."
The patient has been transferred to a specialist NHS infection centre at Guy's and St Thomas' in London.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who is due to chair an emergency Cobra committee meeting on Monday, said preparing for an outbreak in the UK was now the government's "top priority".
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Post by Admin on Mar 2, 2020 18:01:33 GMT
Fehrenbacher, 29, and Christoph, 25, were taking a break from their graduate studies at Tianjin Foreign Studies University in Tianjin, China. Fehrenbacher grew up in Washington, Virginia, and Colorado, and Christoph is from the Chicago area. They went on the cruise with two friends who declined to be named in this story.  "We were definitely the four youngest people on the cruise," Christoph told Business Insider. "But it was good. We had a blast." On February 3, a day before the cruise was scheduled to end, a voice on the ship's intercom announced the discovery of a case of the new coronavirus on board. Fehrenbacher had just recovered from a fever.  The announcer asked anyone who had experienced a fever, chills, or a cough to report to the ship's medical center. Fehrenbacher debated whether to go. "Anybody that might have symptoms of the virus are all going to the exact same place at the exact same time, and that's where I didn't want to be," Fehrenbacher told his alma mater, Grand Canyon University.  After a phone call with his dad, he decided to go down for the medical screening. "Here I am in my sweats and my surgical mask and I'm walking into gloom," Fehrenbacher said. "I'm shivering. I'm in an elevator next to people in evening gowns and tuxedos going to dinner and shows. I couldn't help of thinking of a scene from 'Titanic' where you have Jack and Rose running around panicking and 95% of everyone else is staring at them like they are the crazy ones." |
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Post by Admin on Mar 3, 2020 20:40:47 GMT
The coronavirus has raised questions as to whether the 2020 Olympics will take place as originally scheduled. On Tuesday, Japan Olympic minister Seiko Hashimoto clarified that the event's contract states that the Olympics need to be held at some point during the 2020 calendar year. The contract does not state that the games need to take place during specific weeks or months.
"The IOC has the right to cancel the games only if they are not held during 2020," Hashimoto told parliament on Tuesday, according to the Associated Press. "This can be interpreted to mean the games can be postponed as long as they are held during the calendar year."
The IOC also issued a statement on Tuesday saying that they have the "full commitment to the success of the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, taking place from July 24 to Aug. 9, 2020."
"The IOC (board) encourages all athletes to continue to prepare (for the games)," the IOC noted.
IOC President Thomas Bach and Olympic organizers sticking to the notion that the games will go on as scheduled. However, there have been others member of the committee that have suggested cancelling or moving the Olympics is a possibility.
IOC member Dick Pound said last week that a decision on the Olympics will come as late as May. The games are still four months away, so the committee does have a significant amount of time before reaching a decision. Meanwhile, the coronavirus has already been linked to 12 deaths in Japan while schools have cancelled classes and other sporting events have been postponed in the country. According to CBS News, the respiratory disease has been linked to 70 countries with 90,000 cases and 3,100 deaths.
As coronavirus spreads across the globe, sports leagues -- as well as organizers besides those for the Olympics -- have taken notice. Click here to see how the outbreak is affecting sports around the world.
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Post by Admin on Mar 4, 2020 18:24:09 GMT
A Princess Cruises ship arriving in Réunion Island, near Madagascar, was met by protesters demanding that the liner’s 2,000 passengers be tested for the new coronavirus before deboarding. About 30 protesters tried to block the passengers from getting off the ship on Sunday out of fears that they would bring coronavirus to the small island, which has not yet had any cases of the new virus, The Guardian reported. After the protesters threw rocks and pebbles, police pushed them back with teargas.  “Of course we are not against the arrival of tourists, they are necessary for the development of our economy. We just want to be sure that there is no risk of the coronavirus propagating,” one protester, Yannis Latchimy, told the news outlet. The ship initially tried to dock in Madagascar on Feb. 13 but was turned away because it had not yet been 14 days — the incubation period for coronavirus — since the ship’s last stop, in Thailand, which has seen 43 cases of the disease and one death. |
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