Jan 25 , 2020 . 5 hours ago – 16:50 KYODO NEWS

BEIJING – The number of people with pneumonia caused by a new coronavirus originating in Wuhan topped 1,300 worldwide on Saturday, just as hundreds of millions of Chinese citizens set out on domestic and overseas trips at the start of the Lunar New Year holiday.

The death toll has risen to 41 nationwide, Chinese health authorities said, with 39 fatalities in the central province of Hubei, of which Wuhan is the capital. Of the 1,300 cases, more than 1,200 are in China and no deaths have been reported elsewhere.

Infection has been confirmed in 29 of the country’s 31 provincial-level regions, according to the authorities, while the virus has spread to other Asian nations, the United States, Europe and Australia, sparking fears of a global pandemic.

Japan’s health ministry said Saturday it has confirmed a third case.  The patient is a woman who lives in the central Chinese city of Wuhan and arrived in Japan on Jan. 18. The woman in her 30s, who is in stable condition, is said to have had no symptoms at the time of arrival but developed a fever and started coughing on Tuesday night, according to the ministry.

She visited a Tokyo hospital on Thursday and later tested positive for the virus. However, she has not been hospitalized, exhibiting minor symptoms, and is staying in her hotel room.

Since the start of the New Year holiday on Friday, operators of many tourist destinations in China such as Shanghai Disneyland and the Palace Museum in Beijing, known as the Forbidden City, have decided to close the attractions to prevent the spread of the virus.

In the Chinese capital, miaohui, or temple fairs — a time-honored tradition for Chinese during the weeklong Spring Festival — have also been canceled.

In Wuhan, with a population of more than 10 million, and several neighboring cities, transport services have been shut down. A physician in the city is suspected to have died of pneumonia on Saturday possibly caused by the new coronavirus infection, Chinese media said.

The United States reported Friday the country’s second infection, while France said it has confirmed Europe’s first three cases. Australia and Malaysia said Saturday that their first incidences of the new virus have been identified.

Coronaviruses usually cause common-cold symptoms affecting the nose, sinuses or upper throat, and are spread through sneezing, coughing or direct contact.

Some types, however, lead to more serious, sometimes deadly respiratory diseases, like severe acute respiratory syndrome or Middle East respiratory syndrome, known as SARS and MERS, respectively.

SARS raged in China in 2003 and then spread worldwide, killing 774 people.

The new coronavirus is spreading in Asia and beyond after reports of mysterious pneumonia cases surfaced in late December in Wuhan, located around 1,000 kilometers south of Beijing.

An expert team from Peking University in Beijing has said the new coronavirus could have originated in bats and then been transmitted from snakes to humans. Bats and snakes were sold at a food market in Wuhan that many of the patients visited.

CR: KYODO NEWS