TEHRAN (Iran News) – Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Monday that the government will keep in close touch with all relevant groups to ensure a virus outbreak does not have affect the Summer Olympics.
Olympics Minister Seiko Hashimoto said organizers are not considering canceling the Olympics, which start on July 24.
“We in Japan, will keep in close contact with everybody, including the International Olympic Committee and the World Health Organization, to take appropriate steps and keep the virus from affecting the Olympics,” Abe told a parliamentary committee, Reuters reported.
The death toll from the coronavirus epidemic in China rose to 361 on Monday and a growing number of countries are reporting cases. Japan has 20 confirmed cases, 17 of which were people who had been to China or are Chinese.
On the other hand, the Philippines Department of Health said a 44-year-old man from Wuhan city in central Hubei province, the epicentre of the outbreak, had died after developing severe pneumonia. It was the first death out of more than 130 cases reported in around two dozen other countries and regions outside of mainland China.
The man who died was a companion of a 38-year-old Chinese woman, also from Wuhan, who was the first and only other person to test positive for the virus in the Philippines. Both patients arrived in the Philippines via Hong Kong on Jan. 21.
- source : Tasnim, Irannews
