© Carl Court The Diamond Princess cruise ship sits docked at Daikoku Pier where it is being resupplied and newly diagnosed coronavirus cases taken for treatment as it remains in quarantine after a number of the 3,700 people on board were confirmed to have coronavirus, on Feb. 7, 2020 in Yokohama, Japan.

Cruise ship travelers returning to New Jersey for screening



More than two dozen Chinese nationals aboard a cruise ship that returned to Bayonne, New Jersey, were being screened for any signs of the new virus on Friday morning.

Four of the Chinese travelers were being taken to University Hospital in Newark, according to Mayor Jimmy Davis.

The travelers had come from China for the Royal Caribbean's Anthem of the Seas cruise through the Caribbean.

Twenty-three others, who had presented no symptoms, were heading to Newark airport for a flight back to China. — Brian Thompson

Xi tells U.S. to respond in 'reasonable way'

In a phone call with President Donald Trump, President Xi Jinping urged the U.S. to have a measured response to the virus outbreak, Chinese state media reported on Friday.

Xi said he hoped the two countries could maintain communication and work together to work together to contain the epidemic.

Xi also said the long-term trend of China's economic development will not change.

The White House deputy press secretary tweeted on Friday that Trump expressed confidence in China's resilience in confronting the epidemic during the phone call.

China had previously accused the U.S. of scaremongering over the epidemic. — Dawn Liu and Isobel van Hagen

Death of doctor who raised alarm to be investigated

A Chinese Communist party commission said in a statement it would send a team to Wuhan, "to conduct a comprehensive investigation on the issues reported by the public involving Dr. Li Wenliang," followingthe death the doctor who had been punished by police for blowing the whistle on the outbreak.

Li died of coronavirus Friday local time, the hospital confirmed. The ophthalmologist had tried to warn his colleagues about the deadly new respiratory virus in online chat forums. He was then reportedly reprimanded for "posting false information on the Internet," in the early days of the outbreak

The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection sent a team to Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak. The team will "conduct comprehensive investigation on the issues reported by the public involving Dr. Li Wenliang," it said.

On Friday, the Global Times, a Communist Party newspaper and usual staunch defender of the authorities, reported that “many said the experience of the eight 'whistleblowers' was evidence of local authorities' incompetence to tackle a contagious and deadly virus." — Dawn Liu, Phil Helsel and The Associated Press

11 Americans among 61 on quarantined ship

Eleven Americans are among the 61 people from a quarantined cruise ship off Japan who have been confirmed to have the coronavirus, the cruise line said.

Princess Cruises said that of 41 newly confirmed cases from the quarantined Diamond Princess, eight are Americans. Earlier this week, 20 other people from the ship had tested positive for the virus, and of those three are from the U.S.

Overall, more than 20 of the 61 cases involve Japanese residents. Australians and Canadians are also among those who have tested positive.

The Diamond Princess is quarantined at Yokohama after a passenger who later tested positive for novel coronavirus after getting off in Hong Kong was on the ship late last month. There are around 3,700 passengers and crew aboard, and all are being quarantined.

Princess Cruises says on its website that there could be new developments, but currently the quarantine period is expected to last until Feb. 19. — Arata Yamamoto and Phil Helsel

American evacuees leave Wuhan for U.S.

Two chartered flights with around 300 passengers aboard have left the Chinese city of Wuhan amid a novel coronavirus outbreak centered there, U.S. officials said.

"Two planes have departed Wuhan en route to the United States," a State Department spokesperson said Thursday night.

U.S. Northern Command said the two State Department chartered evacuation flights carried around 300 passenger bound for military bases in Southern California and Nebraska, where they will be quarantined for 14 days.

One of the flights will land at Travis Air Force Base in California for refueling before continuing to Omaha. The other will go to Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego, Northern Command said. The quarantines will be managed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

It’s the second round of flights from Wuhan to the U.S. this week.

A total of 540 American citizens and family members have already been evacuated and are under federal quarantine on three military bases in California: March Air Reserve Base, the Marine Corps Air Station Miramar and Travis Air Force Base. — Abigail Williams

Deaths in mainland China hit 636

Seventy-three new deaths from novel coronavirus were reported in mainland China as of Friday, bringing the total deaths there to 636, according to numbers from China’s national health commission. That's up from 563 deaths on the mainland previously reported.

Novel coronavirus, also known as 2019-nCoV, has been confirmed in more than 31,000 people in mainland China, the commission said. Two people confirmed to have the virus have died elsewhere, one in the Philippines and one in Hong Kong.

Almost all of the new deaths — 69 — occurred in Hubei province, which is where the Chinese city of Wuhan is located.

China's national health commission said of the confirmed cases on the mainland, nearly 29,000 are "currently confirmed." Some people who had been confirmed have been treated and released.

There are 12 confirmed cases in the United States, but there have been no deaths. A second U.S. citizen in Wuhan has been confirmed to have novel coronavirus, and both are being treated at a local hospital there, a U.S. official said Thursday. — Eric Baculinao and Phil Helsel