New cases of the coronavirus in Japan have been confirmed, bringing the total to over 330, including 285 on a cruise ship offshore.
Health authorities are working quickly to come up with effective measures to contain the spread after they found it hard to track down the infection routes of some cases.
Health experts confirmed new cases of the coronavirus across Japan on Saturday. The total number of infections is now over 330, including 285 on a quarantined cruise ship.
Tokyo Metropolitan Government officials said on Saturday that eight more people had been confirmed to be infected with the virus there.
A group of Japanese people who evacuated the virus-stricken Chinese city of Wuhan on the third government-chartered flight, except for one, have gone home after a quarantine period.
Japan's health ministry says when they returned to Japan on January 31st, all 145 people tested negative for the new coronavirus and exhibited no symptoms, such as fever,.
Japan's health ministry has decided to begin clinical trials on patients infected by the new coronavirus with a drug used to treat HIV.
Thailand and other countries have reported that the symptoms of coronavirus patients improved after they were administered antiviral drugs that are used to prevent the onset of AIDS.
NHK has learned that a second doctor at a hospital in Wakayama Prefecture in western Japan has tested positive for the new coronavirus.
The surgeon, who is in his 50s, works at Saiseikai Arida Hospital, where another doctor in his 50s and a patient in his 70s have both tested positive. The development makes the surgeon the third case in the prefecture.