FILE PHOTO: Visitors wearing a protective face masks following an outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) look at blooming cherry blossoms next to ropes cordonning off viewing parties at the area at Ueno park in Tokyo, Japan March 19, 2020. REUTERS/Issei Kato
March 22, 2020
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s Oita prefecture confirmed two new coronavirus infections at a medical center on Sunday, bringing the total at the facility to 14 and making it a suspected cluster, Kyodo newswire said.
Two female nurses who work at the Oita Medical Center, one in her 20s and another in her 50s, were confirmed to be infected with the coronavirus although they showed only mild symptoms, Kyodo said.
The new cases follow 12 others confirmed at the medical center, including nurses and doctors.
The southwestern prefecture is conducting virus tests for about 600 staff and patients who are or were hospitalized, the newswire said, with the view that they may be linked to a cluster.
Japan has recorded 1,055 cases of domestically transmitted cases of coronavirus as of Sunday, up 40 from the previous day, according to public broadcaster NHK. The number passed the 1,000 milestone on Saturday as the nation battles to avoid a health crisis ahead of the Tokyo Olympics.
The official national tally does not include the 712 cases of infections from a cruise ship moored near Tokyo last month.
Kyodo also reported on Sunday that Osaka, in western Japan, confirmed that a man in his 70s with the coronavirus has died, while Gunma, in eastern Japan, said an elderly man with the virus has died.
(Reporting by Yuka Obayashi; Editing by Sam Holmes and Christopher Cushing)
