Japan becomes 2nd to confirm Wuhan virus outside China

By Riyaz ul Khaliq

ANKARA (AA) - Japan on Thursday announced that the first case of a new coronavirus had been found in the country, becoming the second nation to report such a case outside of China where the virus was recently discovered.

Japanese health officials said one Chinese patient living in the eastern Kanagawa Prefecture contracted the virus when he traveled to Wuhan province -- where the virus originated -- in China, Kyodo news reported.

China last Saturday confirmed the first death from the virus that broke out in central China last December.

The Wuhan Municipal Health Commission diagnoses showed 41 cases of pneumonia caused by the coronavirus.

The Kyodo report said the Chinese man, in his 30s, "possibly caught the disease from a carrier in the Chinese city".

"The chances are slim that the infection will expand [in Japan]," the Japanese Health Ministry said.

Thailand on Monday also confirmed that a 61-year-old Chinese woman from Wuhan had been receiving treatment in a hospital in Nonthaburi, near Bangkok, for five days, according to South China Morning Post.

"She had been admitted on her arrival in Bangkok with a tour group, three days after she developed symptoms including fever, a sore throat and a headache," the report said.

Vietnam's health ministry also put two Chinese visitors from Wuhan city in isolation and kept them under observation for the new coronavirus after landing at Danang International Airport on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Taiwan officially declared the virus a communicable disease.