Coronavirus live updates: WHO to send mission to virus-hit China

At least 61 people on board a cruise ship off Japan have tested positive for the new coronavirus, the government said on Friday, as thousands of passengers and crew face a two-week quarantine.

China's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, its top anti-corruption body, said on Friday it would send investigators to Wuhan to probe "issues raised by the people in connection with Dr Li Wenliang." He had earlier revealed he was one of eight people reprimanded by Wuhan police last month for "spreading rumours" about the virus.

Two planes with about 300 passengers, mostly US citizens, took off from the Chinese city of Wuhan on Thursday bound for the United States -- the third group of evacuees from the heart of the coronavirus outbreak, the US State Department said.

Malaysia's biggest palm oil conference has been postponed to June because of health and safety concerns about the rising number of cases of a fast-spreading coronavirus, organisers Bursa Malaysia Derivatives said. The Palm and Lauric Oils Price Outlook Conference and Exhibition, or POC2020, will be rescheduled to June 22 to 24, from its original dates of March 2 to 4.

For the third consecutive day, no positive case of novel coronavirus has been reported from the people who are under observation. At present, 2,826 people who have come from virus-hit regions to the state are under observation. Of this, only 83 people have been isolated in the hospital since they have developed fever symptoms. Read more

Twenty one students of Dalian Medical University are stuck at Kunming airport in China after Singapore disallowed their transit to India through their airport on Thursday over concerns of Novel Coronavirus (nCov). Of the 21 students, 20 are from Kerala. One student is a native of Tamil Nadu. Read more

Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke on Friday with US President Donald Trump on the coronavirus outbreak, emphasising that China has "spared no effort in fighting the epidemic", state media reported. Xi told Trump on the phone that China was "fully confident and capable of defeating the epidemic", and that "the long-term trend of China's economic development for the better will not change", according to state broadcaster CCTV.

Britain, Germany and Italy announced more cases of the new virus from China on Thursday, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in Europe to 31. In Germany, all but two cases are related to auto parts supplier Webasto, whose headquarters near Munich was visited by a Chinese colleague. Germany's 13th confirmed case of the new coronavirus was announced by Bavaria's health ministry. British authorities confirmed the country's third case, saying the patient did not contract the virus in the UK. Italy announced the first case of an Italian citizen confirmed to have the virus.

A Chinese doctor who tried to warn the world about a new coronavirus died of the disease on Friday, prompting an outpouring of sorrow as the death toll passed 630 and Beijing declared a "people's war" on the rapidly spreading pathogen. Read more

In a major breakthrough for global preclinical response to the novel coronavirus (nCoV) outbreak, a team led by an overseas citizen of India has grown the first batch of the virus outside China in sufficient stocks to cater to forthcoming studies in the highsecurity lab of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) in Australia. Read more

Chinese doctor Li Wenliang (34), one of the eight whistle-blowers of the coronavirus outbreak reprimanded by the police, died of the epidemic on Thursday. He dropped a bombshell in his medical school alumni group chat in December 2019 that seven patients from a local seafood market had been diagnosed with a SARS-like illness and quarantined in his hospital. Read more

The coronavirus outbreak could deliver a painful multi-billion-dollar hit to Australian universities, as high-paying Chinese students are forced to defer their studies, economists warned on Thursday. Top universities stand to lose around $2 billion (Aus$3 billion) in fees alone, according to preliminary estimates from analysts at Standard & Poor's. Read more

Samples of all these individuals will be re-tested on day 14 of the quarantine period, Union health ministry said. Read more