#14,873
On Thursday, in Japan MOH: Details On 1st Coronavirus Death & Recently Confirmed Taxi Driver, we saw the first inking of what is rapidly becoming a large cluster of community acquired COVID-19 cases in Tokyo, Japan.
Japan's 28th case was described as a taxi driver living in Tokyo, who first reported symptoms on January 29th - who visited several medical institutions over the next two weeks - and who was finally diagnosed on February 13th.For the next part of this story we have to jump to Tokyo's Municipal government website, which provides details on the ongoing epidemiological investigation. This 28th patient attended a large party on January 18th, and now several other attendees are testing positive.
Current status of active epidemiological survey of Tokyo patients (identified on February 13) (13th report)
On February 13, a case of infectious disease related to this new type of coronavirus was confirmed in Tokyo, and the results of an active epidemiological survey conducted in cooperation with the public health center to date have shown the following. I will inform you as follows.
1 Behavior history before onset
January 18
- Participated in the New Year's party (yakata boat) of the private taxi union branch in the Jonan district.
- About 80 people participated in the New Year party.
2 Dealing with dense contacts
- * Other crew and daily activities are currently being checked.
At present, there are approximately 100 patients who have been in close contact with patients, including those who attended the New Year's party on January 18 and workers on houseboats, those living with patients, employees working at the individual taxi union branch office, and those working at the medical institution where the patient consulted. I know the name.
As a result of the test conducted yesterday at the Health and Safety Research Center, two people were found positive today. These people were found to be employees of a private taxi union branch and a houseboat.
The houseboat workers confirmed that they had a history of contact with travelers from Hubei Province, China, and that about 10 new year party participants had symptoms such as fever, We are currently investigating the details, mainly by the parties involved in the meeting.
Close contacting persons, regardless of the presence or absence of symptoms, conduct tests sequentially for all persons, and will announce the test results promptly.
Close contact with patients is requested to:
Japanese media are now reporting on 8 new cases identified in Tokyo, 7 of which are linked to this party. Japan's MOH has posted a graphical image of a document about these cases, but that isn't translatable with the tools i have available.
- Waiting at home until test results are revealed
- For those who have no symptoms and a negative test result, a 14-day health observation from the date of the last close contact with the patient
- If symptoms occur, contact a health center and consult a medical institution
The Asahi Shimbun, however is reporting:
8 new cases of coronavirus infection in Tokyo confirmed
THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
February 15, 2020 at 19:07 JST
Eight more Tokyo residents were confirmed to be infected with the coronavirus on Feb. 15, authorities said.
Six of them attended a New Year’s party on a “yakatabune” party boat. Another individual in his 40s worked on the party boat.
The party was held for independent taxi drivers in Tokyo. A taxi driver in his 70s had earlier been confirmed to be infected with the coronavirus. Others who attended the same party were also tested.
Four taxi drivers in their 50s to 80s, as well as two women in their 50s and 60s who live with two of the men, were confirmed to have the coronavirus.
The eighth case concerned a company employee in his 40s who had not visited either Hubei or Zhejiang provinces in China, where the highest number of infections have occurred, during the past two weeks.
Due to a prolonged incubation period, and a slow progression of illness, there appears to have been a substantial community transmission event in Tokyo back on January 18th, which has gone unrecognized for nearly 4 weeks.
All of which makes the relatively small number of cases being reported outside of Mainland China a little less reassuring.
