February 9 coronavirus news

By Ben Westcott, Adam Renton, Angela Dewan, Fernando Alfonso and Amir Vera, CNN

Updated 0249 GMT (1049 HKT) February 10, 2020
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6:22 p.m. ET, February 9, 2020

Coronavirus global death toll rises to 904

From CNN’s Steven Jiang and Larry Register

The Hubei Health Authority reported that 91 more people died of coronavirus in Hubei province on Sunday, raising the death toll in the epicenter since the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak to 871.

The total number of deaths in mainland China is now at least 902. The global toll is at least 904, with one death in Hong Kong and one in the Philippines.

Hubei authorities confirmed an additional 2,618 cases of the virus on Sunday, which brings the total number of cases in the epicenter of the outbreak to 29,631.

The global number of confirmed coronavirus cases now exceeds 40,000, with the vast majority in mainland China.

4:51 p.m. ET, February 9, 2020

Princess Cruises offers refund to passengers on quarantined ship

From CNN's Larry Register and Mitchell McCluskey

The Diamond Princess cruise ship has been quarantined because of coronavirus.
The Diamond Princess cruise ship has been quarantined because of coronavirus.

Princess Cruises will offer a full refund for passengers aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship quarantined at Yokohama, Japan, a representative told CNN.

The ship has been quarantined at the port since February 4 after a former passenger tested positive for coronavirus. Since then, 70 news cases of the virus have been confirmed aboard the ship.

There are more than 3,700 people on board the cruise ship, including 2,600 passengers.

In a letter, Princess Cruises President Jan Swartz thanked passengers for their "perseverance and understanding."

"All monies paid to Princess Cruises including your cruise fare, round trip Princess Air, pre- or post-Cruise Plus hotels, transfers, prepaid shore excursions, gratuities and other items, and taxes, fees and port expenses will be refunded to the original form of payment," Swartz wrote.

Swartz said the company will "refund reasonable independent expenses," along with air travel, transfers or pre/post-cruise hotels. Each guest also will receive a 100% future cruise credit equal to the fare passengers paid for the quarantined voyage, Swartz wrote. That credit has to be applied by February 28, 2021.

"It is our sincere hope that the refund and credit will help ease at least a small bit of the stress you may be feeling right now," Swartz wrote.

4:20 p.m. ET, February 9, 2020

World Health Organization sends experts to China

From CNN’s Mitchell McCluskey

A World Health Organization (WHO) team left for China on Sunday to assist with containing the novel coronavirus outbreak, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Twitter.

“I’ve just been at the airport seeing off members of an advance team for the @WHO-led #2019nCoV international expert mission to #China, led by Dr. Bruce Aylward, veteran of past public health emergencies,” Ghebreyesus said.

Aylward has also lead the WHO’s response to Ebola, as well as initiatives for immunization, communicable diseases control and polio eradication.

1:45 p.m. ET, February 9, 2020

Global spread: More than 37,000 cases of coronavirus confirmed worldwide

World Health Organization figures show that the virus has affected at least 28 countries, many of them in Asia, and has reached as far as the US and Australia.

The vast majority of the cases and deaths are in mainland China.

4:21 p.m. ET, February 9, 2020

More than 3,600 people will disembark the World Dream cruise ship in Hong Kong after quarantine

From CNN's Chermaine Lee

More than 3,600 people, which includes crew and passengers, can leave the World Dream cruise ship since being quarantined on February 5 after the health authorities announced that everyone on board had tested negative for coronavirus.

The ship has been docked in Hong Kong.

4:23 p.m. ET, February 9, 2020

3 more cases confirmed in Singapore

From Mohammed Tawfeeq in Atlanta 

Three new cases of the coronavirus were confirmed in Singapore on Sunday, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in Singapore to 43, according to a statement released by the Health Ministry. 

The Health Ministry said it will be working to identify anyone who has come in close contact with those infected. 

“As of 9 February 2020, 12pm, the Ministry of Health (MOH) has confirmed three additional cases of 2019-nCoV infection in Singapore. Contact tracing of the new cases is underway,” the Health Ministry statement said.

The three new confirmed cases have “no recent travel history to China,” the statement said.

4:25 p.m. ET, February 9, 2020

Brazilians arrive from Wuhan aboard military planes

From CNN's Helena de Moura in Atlanta

A group of 34 Brazilian nationals arrived in Brazil’s western state of Goias on Sunday after being transported on military planes from Wuhan, China, according to Brazil’s Health Regulatory Agency ANVISA.

This came after President Jair Bolsonaro expressed reservations in coordinating their return for fear of contamination.

None of the new arrivals have shown signs of contamination so far, ANVISA reported.

Brazil’s government said it has taken strict measures to isolate these repatriated nationals who arrived at Annapolis Air force base in Goias.

They are expected to be quarantined for 18 days and will be in isolation in a so-called “transit” hotel, according to ANVISA.

Goias Gov. Ronaldo Caiado rebutted public criticism that the quarantine measures are draconian.

“Brazil has created a protocol that has become an example to the rest of the world,” he told a government news agency.

4:25 p.m. ET, February 9, 2020

20 Germans and their family members arrive in Berlin from Wuhan

From CNN’s Arnaud Siad and Martin Goillandeau in London

Twitter/@Team_Luftwaffe
Twitter/@Team_Luftwaffe

Twenty German citizens and their family members landed in Berlin on Sunday after being repatriated from Wuhan, China, via the United Kingdom, the German Foreign Ministry said on Sunday. 

On Twitter, German Minister for Foreign Affairs Heiko Maas said he was “relieved” about their repatriation, which included “many European citizens." He said they would be spending two weeks in quarantine in a Red Cross hospital.

Maas also said: “A big thank you to our British friends for their trust and cooperation,” adding the repatriation was “an act of European solidarity that is encouraging for future EU-UK relations post-Brexit.”

The German air force tweeted that those on board had been flown from Wuhan on a British chartered plane.

8:33 a.m. ET, February 9, 2020

Opinion: New study an eye-opener on how coronavirus is spreading and how little we know

By Dr. Tom Frieden, former director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

A study published Friday in the medical journal JAMA found that 41% of the first 138 patients diagnosed at one hospital in Wuhan, China, were presumed to be infected in that hospital.

This is big news. In plain English, it means that nearly half of the initial infections in this hospital appear to have been spread within the hospital itself. This is called nosocomial transmission. (Doctors use big words to hide bad things: Nosocomial means caught it in the hospital.)

Medical staff arrive with a patient at the Wuhan Red Cross Hospital last month.
Medical staff arrive with a patient at the Wuhan Red Cross Hospital last month. Hector RETAMAL / AFP) (Photo by HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP via Getty Images

What's more, most spread doesn't appear to have been the result of a so-called "super-spreader event," in which a single patient transmits infection to many other people. In these events, a procedure such as bronchoscopy -- where a doctor inserts a tube into the patient's lungs -- can result in many infections.

This would be a concern, but not nearly as much as what appears to have happened: Many health care workers and many patients got infected in many parts of the hospital. What's more, since there's a broad spectrum of infection and only patients who were sick were tested, it's quite likely that there was even more transmission in the hospital.

So, like SARS and MERS -- other coronaviruses -- before it, the Wuhan coronavirus is spreading in hospitals.

Read Dr. Frieden's full commentary here