Japan's health ministry says a Chinese woman who visited Hokkaido has been confirmed to be infected with the new coronavirus. She is the seventh case of infection in Japan.

The woman in her 40s is a resident of the Chinese city of Wuhan in Hubei Province. She came to Japan on January 21 and began touring Hokkaido the next day.

Japan's health minister Katsunobu Kato has announced that two more people have been confirmed infected with the new coronavirus in Japan.

Kato said on Tuesday that one of them has no record of staying in the Chinese city of Wuhan in Hubei Province, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak. The person is the first to be confirmed infected despite having no record of staying in Wuhan.

Japan plans to dispatch a chartered plane to the Chinese city of Wuhan to repatriate Japanese citizens trapped there due to the coronavirus outbreak as soon as an agreement is reached with China on the flight.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters on Tuesday that the government is planning to return Japanese nationals who wish to leave the central Chinese city. Suga said his government is coordinating with China to send an All Nippon Airways aircraft to Wuhan to facilitate the evacuation.

Japan's government is to add pneumonia caused by the new coronavirus to the list of designated infectious diseases on Tuesday.

Members of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Cabinet will approve an ordinance giving the illness designations under the country's infectious disease and quarantine laws.

Japan's health ministry says authorities will conduct virus tests at airports and seaports to speed up the process of identifying those infected with the new coronavirus.

Samples from suspected patients are now being sent for testing to the National Institute of Infectious Diseases or public health institutes across Japan. But the ministry sees the need to accelerate the process as infections of the virus spreads.

Japan's communications ministry plans to require key mobile phone base stations to have at least 24 hours of backup power.

The move comes after a series of powerful typhoons caused prolonged disruption to mobile communications last year.

Japan is scrambling to make arrangements for citizens seeking to get out of Wuhan, a Chinese city at the center of the coronavirus outbreak.

Officials want workers to notify the government of their plans to stay or go.

Japan's health ministry says it has confirmed the country's fourth case of the new coronavirus.

The ministry said on Sunday that the patient is a male tourist in his 40s from the Chinese city of Wuhan.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe says the government will evacuate nationals who want to leave the Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicenter of a coronavirus outbreak.

Abe told reporters on Sunday that the government worked through the weekend to determine whether citizens want to leave Wuhan, and to examine ways to take them out of the city, which is under lockdown.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe says the government will bring home all nationals who wish to leave the Chinese city of Wuhan, which is under lockdown due to an outbreak of coronavirus.

Abe told reporters on Sunday that the government plans to charter commercial aircraft once arrangements have been made with the Chinese government.

Health authorities in Japan have confirmed the country's third case of the new coronavirus.

Health ministry officials say a woman in her 30s from the inland Chinese city of Wuhan complained of fever and other symptoms after she arrived in Japan last Saturday as a tourist.

Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi says the ministry will swiftly raise the infectious disease warning for China's Hubei Province to the second-highest level of three. Hubei is home to the city of Wuhan, where infections of the new strain of coronavirus are centered.

Motegi told reporters on Friday that the ministry will urge Japanese citizens to refrain from traveling to Hubei Province.

Japan's transport minister says he is stepping up measures against a possible outbreak of the latest coronavirus. Kazuyoshi Akaba pledged an all-out effort for the expected spike in visitors from China during the Lunar New Year holiday.

The government is urging airlines and cruise ships to distribute a "health card" to all those arriving from China. The card directs people to quarantine officers if they have come from Wuhan and have symptoms, or are taking medicine for pain.

Japan's health ministry has confirmed the country's second infection of the new coronavirus strain currently spreading in China. The virus was detected in a man in his 40s visiting Tokyo from Wuhan.

The inland Chinese city has been hit by a pneumonia outbreak that is likely caused by the virus.