175 now infected with coronavirus on cruise ship, including quarantine officer

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At least 175 people have contracted 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) aboard a luxury cruise ship quarantined in Japan. The latest total includes 39 newly identified cases among passengers and crew members, plus one case in a Japanese quarantine officer working on the vessel.

The outbreak on the ship Diamond Princess is the largest outside of China, where the virus is thought to have spread to people from animals in a live-animal market in the city of Wuhan, the capital city of the central Hubei province. The virus’ jump to humans led to an explosion of disease, which, as of yesterday, February 11, the World Health Organization formally dubbed COVID-19, short for “coronavirus disease 2019.”

Since the outbreak began in December, there have been over 45,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 worldwide and at least 1,115 deaths. But while 2019-nCoV has spread to at least 24 countries beyond China, nearly all of the COVID-19 cases and all but one death have occurred in China.

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