Japan Reports Additional COVID-19 Infections...Preschool Children Also Confirmed Positive

[Asia Economy Reporter Son Sunhee] New cases of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) are rapidly emerging across Japan.

According to local Japanese media on the 21st, Saitama Prefecture announced that one preschool child was infected with COVID-19 on the same day. This child returned to Japan on the second charter flight from Wuhan, China, the origin of COVID-19, on the 30th of last month along with his father in his 40s. The father in his 40s was confirmed positive on the 10th. Subsequently, the child showed fever symptoms during home quarantine and tested positive after examination.

In Hokkaido, two elementary school siblings and a female quarantine officer in her 40s at New Chitose Airport were newly confirmed positive. Authorities reportedly recommended temporary closure of the school where the elementary school infections occurred.

In Ishikawa Prefecture in central-western Japan, a man in his 50s who traveled to Tokyo on a business trip from the 12th to the 14th was confirmed positive, and his travel route is being investigated. In Chiba Prefecture, a male security guard in his 60s with an unidentified infection route was infected with COVID-19. In Tokyo Metropolis, two women in their 50s and one woman in her 70s were confirmed positive.

Accordingly, as of 6:30 PM on the same day, the total number of infected people in Japan was counted as 737, including 634 passengers on the cruise ship Diamond Princess, 89 infected people in 14 domestic metropolitan areas and Chinese tourists, and 14 charter flight returnees.

Meanwhile, Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare announced that 253 passengers on the cruise ship Diamond Princess, where a large number of confirmed cases occurred, who tested negative have disembarked. As a result, a total of 970 people have disembarked from the ship over the past three days since the 19th.