https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-7999851/Elderly-woman-dies-coronavirus-Japan.html?ico=pushly-notifcation-small
Coronavirus death toll has its biggest EVER spike: 242 people die in a day and 15,000 people catch the disease after sacking of Chinese communist bosses who 'covered up' true scale
- The death toll on Wednesday surged by 254 to 1,369, the highest one-day rise
- And the number of cases soared from around 45,000 to more than 60,000
- A change to how cases are recorded caused the spike after a political reshuffle
- An 80-year-old woman in the Kanagawa region of Japan died today
- She is the first coronavirus patient to die in Japan and the third outside of China
A daily record of 242 coronavirus deaths were recorded in China yesterday and the number of reported cases surged by 15,000 (34 per cent).
Officials decided that people who have virus symptoms, plus a CT scan showing chest infection, are now being counted as confirmed cases.
It explains why cases soared past 60,000 and deaths shot above 1,300 in a single day - cases were previously only being confirmed using specialized testing kits.
But authorities have had to switch to the broader diagnostic tools because they are running out of the kits and hundreds of patients are going untested.
It raises the prospect that deaths and infections could have been much higher if medics were using this method all along.
The confusion around diagnosing the killer disease in Wuhan makes it even harder for experts to map the epidemic and predict when it will peak and end.
It comes as two top politicians in Hubei, the region at the centre of the outbreak, have been sacked by Beijing for 'not being so forthcoming' about the virus.
The officials sacked were the regional leader of the ruling Communist Party of China and, previously, the political chief and the director of the Hubei health commission.
And, today, an 80-year-old woman in Japan has died with the coronavirus to become the country's first recorded victim, taking the toll to 1,370.
A daily record of 242 coronavirus deaths were recorded in China yesterday and the number of reported cases surged by 15,000 (34 per cent)
The number of people who have died of the coronavirus surged last night after the Hubei province, which is at the centre of the outbreak, changed the way it records new cases
Paramedics in Japan are pictured driving an ambulance wearing hazmat suits. They are en route to a cruise ship which is moored at a port in Yokohoma and has had more than 200 infected patients
The first Japanese fatality was in a woman from the Kanagawa province, to the west of Tokyo
The death makes Japan just the third place outside of China to declare someone has died from the virus, along with Hong Kong and the Philippines.
At least 236 people have been officially diagnosed with the virus, now known as SARS-CoV-2, in Japan since its first infection on January 16.
Almost all of these, however – 219 at latest count – have been among passengers on a cruise ship which is quarantined in the water off a port near Yokohoma.
Health minister Katsunobu Kato confirmed the woman's death today, February 13. She had been living in the Kanagawa region close to Tokyo.
Mr Kato said that authorities are not certain that the woman was killed by the virus, but that she is the first person to die after testing positive for the infection.
'The relationship between the new coronavirus and the death of the person is still unclear,' he said at a government briefing.
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'This is the first death of a person who tested positive.'
Further details about the woman have yet to emerge.
The number of declared cases of the coronavirus surged in the Hubei province to more than 48,000 yesterday – a larger number than the entire global toll at the time.
This is believed to be a result of local officials being sacked and their replacements being more cautious about recording cases, to avoid the same fate.
Whereas only lab tests had been recorded before, lung scans are now counted, too, meaning people who would previously only have been suspected cases are now confirmed.
The official figure is not thought to reflect a genuine spread of the illness.
Professor Paul Hunter, from the University of East Anglia, said: 'This does not change anything about trajectory of the epidemic. It is solely an administrative issue. I doubt the real number of new cases is much different from yesterday.
'Essentially they are accepting a clinical diagnosis which previously would have only qualified as a suspect case.
'This will effectively have moved most of the previously suspected cases into confirmed case. Many of the suspect cases will ultimately be proven to be COVID19 [while] others will actually be other illnesses altogether or remain lacking a laboratory diagnosis.'
It is not clear whether the death increase is linked to the political shake-up. Deaths may be rising faster because high numbers of people infected in past weeks mean there are more patients now reaching the end stages of their illness.
The Philippines was the first country outside of China to declare that somebody had died because of the coronavirus, on February 2.
A 44-year-old man there succumbed to 'severe pneumonia' after he travelled from Wuhan, the Chinese city at ground zero of the outbreak.
He had been a resident of Wuhan, where most cases have been, and travelled to the Philippines with a 38-year-old woman who was put into observation after his death.
After him, a 39-year-old man died in Hong Kong on February 5. The man had visited his 72-year-old mother in Wuhan, from whom he caught the illness.
Media in Hong Kong said the man was suffering from underlying health problems before he caught the illness, which is almost always mild.
People with long-term illnesses such as diabetes or heart disease, or with compromised immune systems, are the ones who are most at risk of dying because of the virus.
Health people can generally fend it off with only cold-like symptoms or without noticing they are ill at all.
But those whose bodies are weaker may develop a more serious infection in their lungs which can then progress to pneumonia, which is deadly.
The woman who died is thought to have been one of just 17 coronavirus cases diagnosed on the mainland of the country.
Ninety-three per cent of the 236 infections there have been diagnosed among passengers of a cruise ship which is being held in the water off Yokohoma.
The Diamond Princess has been docked at sea since February 3 after the first passengers tested positive for the virus.
Since then, a total of 219 have caught the illness.
Sick passengers have been taken off the boat and ferried to hospital by Japanese health workers, but the other holidaymakers – there are around 2,500 in total – are trapped on board and not allowed to leave.
British couple David and Sally Abel, from Northamptonshire, have a private balcony but are mostly confined to their cabin and have to wear masks and stay away from other passengers when they are let out for brief periods.
The 80-year-old woman's death, near Tokyo, has become the 1,370th global fatality from the coronavirus. All but three deaths have been in mainland China
David and Sally Abel, from Northamptonshire, are among 2,500 passengers who have been stuck on the Diamond Princess off the Japanese coast since February 3
Passengers on board the Diamond Princess are not allowed off the ship until they have been confirmed to be virus free. The number of infected passengers has been rising by the day, to 219
Ambulances are pictured on a port near the city of Yokohoma, where the Diamond Princess is being held
The giant ship was carrying around 2,500 holidaymakers – more than 700 have been tested for the coronavirus
Asked how they were feeling, Mrs Abel yesterday told Good Morning Britain: 'Wishing it was over. It's getting harder. It's a nightmare you just want to wake up from.'
But she said she and her husband are getting along okay, adding: 'I must admit, we have got on pretty well. No arguments.'
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