Coronavirus: latest developments worldwide

US passenger wave to reporters as they leave the Daikaku Pier Cruise Terminal in Yokohama port, next to the Diamond Princess cruise ship, with people quarantined onboard due to fears of the new COVID-19 coronavirus, at on February 17, 2020. – Americans began leaving a quarantined cruise ship off Japan on February 17, 2020, to board chartered flights home as the number of new coronavirus cases diagnosed on the vessel jumped to 355. (Photo by Behrouz MEHRI / AFP)

PARIS, FRANCE (AFP) — More than 1,600 dead from the novel coronavirus in China. A first death in Taiwan. More infected onboard a cruise ship quarantined off Japan. Here are the latest developments.

– Toll passes 1,600 –

The death toll from China’s coronavirus epidemic jumps to 1,665 in mainland China after 142 more people succumb, according to the Chinese authorities daily report.

In central Hubei province, the epicentre, the number of new cases slows for a third straight day to 1,843. More than 68,500 people have been infected across the country.

– Fifth death outside mainland –

Taiwan on Sunday reports its first death from the coronavirus, the fifth recorded death outside mainland China. Previous victims were in the Philippines, China’s semi-autonomous territory Hong Kong, Japan, and France.

The Taiwanese victim is a 61-year-old unlicensed taxi driver, whose “main clients were people who had been to China, Hong Kong and Macao,” health and welfare minister Chen Shih-chung tells reporters.

– Diamond Princess –

The number of people infected on a cruise ship quarantined off Japan since February 3 has risen to 355, a daily jump of 70, the country’s health minister says. It represents the biggest cluster outside China.

The United States started on Sunday evacuating US nationals on the ship via chartered flights home, where they will be quarantined locally. The ship on arrival carried 3,711 passengers and crew, some of whom have yet to be examined.

– WHO: ‘impossible’ to predict –

World Health Organization (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warns it is “impossible” to predict how the outbreak will develop.

“China has bought the world time. We don’t know how much time,” he says of the epidemic which has so far spread to around 30 locations.

– French, Germans released from quarantine –

In France a second wave of 120 people are released from quarantine in southern France, 14 days after being evacuated from Wuhan, the Chinese city where the epidemic started. Another 35 people who arrived on February 9 will remain confined until the 23rd.

In Germany, 122 nationals are also released from quarantine at a military base near Frankfurt airport, two weeks after flying in from Wuhan. None is infected, according to the authorities.

Germany is the European country with the most people infected with the COVID-19 strain, with 16 cases confirmed, but no fatalities.