Coronavirus Outbreak LIVE: Donning Face Mask, Xi Jinping Visits Infected Patients; Global Stocks Mixed on Virus But Nasdaq Hit Records

13th Case of Virus in US | The 13th case of coronavirus in the United States was detected in California in a person under federal quarantine after returning from Wuhan, China, said the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), according to a Reuters report.

Thailand Refuses Entry to Cruise Ship | Thailand has barred passengers from Holland America's cruise ship MS Westerdam from disembarking, its health minister said on Tuesday, the latest country to turn it away amid fears of the coronavirus despite no confirmed infections on board. Holland America, owned by Miami-based Carnival Corp, had said on Monday that passengers would disembark in Bangkok on February 13 and that there was no reason to believe anybody on board had the virus, stated a Reuters report.

Top Chinese Health Officials Replaced | Party Secretary of Health Commission of Hubei Province Zhang Jin and Director of the Hubei Provincial Health Commission Liu Yingzi were removed from their posts, according to state-owned People's Daily of China. The two posts will be taken over by Wang Hesheng, a Standing Committee member of the Communist Party of China's Hubei Provincial Committee.

Party Secretary of Health Commission of Hubei Province Zhang Jin and director of the Hubei Provincial Health Commission Liu Yingzi were removed from their posts. The two posts will be taken over by Wang Hesheng, a Standing Committee member of the CPC Hubei Provincial Committee. pic.twitter.com/AnGOVOvDOw

— People's Daily, China (@PDChina) February 11, 2020

Chinese Companies Seek Loans to Battle Virus | More than 300 Chinese companies are seeking bank loans adding up to at least 57.4 billion yuan ($8.2 billion) to help to soften the impact of the coronavirus outbreak, two banking sources said. They added that the companies seeking loans were either involved in the control of the epidemic or had been hardest hit. Read more here.

Did Exhaust Pipe Spread Coronavirus? While the means behind the spread of coronavirus are still being figured out, officials in Hong Hong are investigating whether an exhaust pipe in a high rise tower in the area led to the spread of the disease, stated a CNN report. Two people residing on the same block in the Hong Mei House, in Tsing Yi, have contracted the virus.

The cruise ship 'Anthem of the Seas' which was docked for two days due to coronavirus fears, has now left port, while two other ships, 'Diamond Princess'(Japan) and 'World Dream'(China) still remain halted and quarantined. (Image: Reuters/Bryan R Smith)

Stuck Ship 'Anthem of the Seas' Leaves Port | Another ship halted due to the coronavirus epidemic, left port in New Jersey, and is now en route to Bermuda, stated a CNN report. The cruise ship's name is Royal Caribbean “Anthem of the Seas”.

China appreciates Prime Minister Narendra Modi's letter to President Xi Jinping offering solidarity and assistance to deal with the deadly coronavirus outbreak, saying it "fully demonstrated" New Delhi's friendship with Beijing. "India's acts of goodwill fully demonstrate its friendship with China," Geng said during an online media briefing while replying to a question on Modi's letter to Xi.

US President Donald Trump said Monday he expected the coronavirus outbreak that has killed more than 900 people to disappear in April due to hotter weather. "The virus ... typically that will go away in April," he said, adding: "The heat, generally speaking, kills this kind of virus."

Since the outbreak of the coronavirus in Wuhan province, Monday was the first time when single-day death toll crossed 100. A total of 108 persons died in China, the country's National Health Commission said. Among the deaths, 103 were in Hubei province, the epicentre of the outbreak, and one each in Beijing, Tianjin, Heilongjiang, Anhui and Henan.

A British man managed to pass on the coronavirus to at least 11 other people without ever setting foot in the epicentre of the outbreak in China, in an infectious journey that shows how the deadly virus can spread rapidly around a globalised world. Read full story here. 

South Korea confirmed its 28th case of coronavirus on Tuesday when a Chinese woman, age 30, tested positive while she was in self-quarantine. A 13th person in the United States tested positive for the virus too. The patient had arrived in the country last week from Wuhan and has been held at the San Diego Medical Center at the University of California. 

India's efforts to evacuate its citizens from the coronavirus-hit Hubei province and its capital Wuhan was a logistical nightmare since the entire operation had to be done in a region sealed from all sides, Indian Ambassador to China Vikram Misri said on Monday. It was a logistical nightmare as data had to be collected about Indians stranded in the virus-hit areas while many left for home for the Chinese New Year holidays, he added.

Indian crew members of a Japanese cruise ship made an anxious appeal to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Indian government to rescue them in a video. The cruise ship, called Diamond Princess, was carrying 3,711 people when it arrived in Japan's Yokohama last week. It has been quarantined there since after a passenger who de-boarded in Hong Kong in January was found to be carrying the virus.

The virus has spread to at least 27 countries and territories, according to a Reuters count based on official reports, infecting more than 330 people. The two deaths outside mainland China were in Hong Kong and the Philippines. The death toll from the outbreak has now surpassed that of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which killed hundreds worldwide in 2002/2003.

Earlier, the World Health Organization (WHO) said the spread of coronavirus cases that had no history of travel to China could be "the spark that becomes a bigger fire" as people across China trickled back to work after an extended Lunar New Year holiday. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said there had been "concerning instances" of transmission from people who had not been to China. "But for now it is only a spark. Our objective remains containment."

A total of 3,996 patients infected with the coronavirus have been discharged from hospital till Monday after recovery, while as many as 7,333 patients remained in severe condition. Further, 21,675 people are suspected of being infected with the virus. Over 4.28 lakh close contacts had been traced and more than 1.87 lakh others are still under medical observation.

The death toll in China due to the novel coronavirus epidemic is estimated at 1016 while the confirmed cases have gone over 42,000, health officials announced on Tuesday. As many as 108 deaths were reported on Monday and 2,478 new cases of the lethal disease were confirmed, the National Health Commission said in its daily report.