First coronavirus death outside China reported in Philippines

Bloomberg

A 44-year-old Chinese male from Wuhan died in the Philippines on February 1 from the novel coronavirus, the first death recorded outside of China, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on
Sunday.
The man arrived in the Philippines on January 21 accompanying the country’s first confirmed case, a 38-year-old woman, after they had travelled from Wuhan via Hong Kong, Health Secretary Francisco Duque said at a televised briefing in Manila. He was hospitalised on January 25 after experiencing a fever, cough and sore throat, which developed into severe pneumonia.
“This is the first reported death outside China, however we need take into mind it is not a locally acquired case,” WHO’s representative in the Philippines, Rabindra Abeyasinghe, said at the briefing. “This patient is from the epicentre of this outbreak in Wuhan, China, where they have a very large number of deaths.”
On Sunday, President Rodrigo Duterte widened his travel ban previously imposed on visitors from Hubei province to all of China, including Hong Kong and Macau, and also prohibited Filipinos from traveling to those areas, according to his spokesman, Salvador Panelo. Citizens returning from China and its special administrative regions must go into quarantine for 14 days, Panelo said.
“This health event is fast-evolving and fluid,” Duque said at the briefing. “We are continuously recalibrating our plans and efforts as the situation develops.”
The 38-year-old woman is no longer showing symptoms for the coronavirus, the health secretary said. She had travelled with her companion to the central provinces of Cebu and Dumaguete after arriving from Hong Kong, and was hospitalised with him in Manila on January 25.
Four other people in the Philippines are being tested for the virus, Duque said.

‘Coronavirus outbreak to hurt Japan economy’
Bloomberg

The deadly coronavirus outbreak will affect Japan’s economy by hurting tourism to the nation, said Fumio Kishida, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s policy chief.
“There will definitely be an impact on the economy,” Kishida told national broadcaster NHK on Sunday. The outbreak “has already been prompting cancellations one after another, affecting the tourism industry.”
The virus is posing a challenge to PM Shinzo Abe’s target of increasing the number of foreign visitors to 40 million this year, when Tokyo hosts the Olympic games. Chinese tourists accounted for 40% of spending by foreign tourists in Japan last year, according to Bloomberg Economics.