South Korea reported its first death from coronavirus Thursday

South Korea reported its first death from the coronavirus on Thursday. The country’s Center for Disease Control (KCDC) reported 22 new confirmed cases of the virus, with the deceased among that number. The cause of death is under investigation. - Holly Ellyatt

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Reported separately:

The Korea Center for Disease Control and Prevention said the 63-year-old victim, who died Wednesday from pneumonia, had been bedridden for more than 20 years at a hospital in southeastern city of Cheongdo.

Coronavirus deaths in Iran are not yet confirmed by WHO

The World Health Organization has not yet confirmed the two Iranian coronavirus deaths, but should they be confirmed, it would raise the death toll outside of China to seven.

Story yesterday.

Two elderly Japanese who were guests on Diamond Princess cruise ship have died from coronavirus

From the start, experts raised questions about quarantine on the ship. Passengers were not confined to rooms until Feb. 5. The day before, as passengers were being screened, ship events continued, including dances, quiz games and an exercise class.

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Separately reported:

The deceased patients — a man and a woman — were in their 80s and were residents of Japan. Both were taken ashore for treatment last week after having prolonged fevers, and they ultimately tested positive for the newly identified virus, known officially as COVID-19. They both died Thursday, according to Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, which is leading and coordinating the public health response on board the cruise ship. ... The WHO has not yet officially confirmed several other deaths recently reported in various nations, including the two cruise ship passengers in Japan.

Coronavirus update: 75,700+ cases, 2,130 deaths

Death rate: 2.81%.

The crowd uniquely at least twice audibly recoiled at Bloomberg statements

He's not going anywhere.

Joe Biden can't close

Reeled off three points no one will remember.

He couldn't remember 'em either, had 'em written down.

Klobuchar's top selling point is normalcy

Only works anymore in places like Minnesota.

Bernie's not a vanguard communist

He's a bottom up, proletariat uprising communist.

But there aren't enough of them in Trump's America, which is why he'd lose.

There it is again: Pocahonky say "I grew up fighting"

Trail of tears.

Benito Bloomberg gonna make the trains run on time

Pocahonky on warpath against everybody on stage

Trail of tears.

Bloomie havin' a hard time remembering to criticize Trump's tax cuts, not Obama's

Obama made the Bush tax cuts permanent.

Joe Biden is loudly for tariff punishment of China for burning coal

He's a Democrat Trump.

Democrats forced Obamacare on the country and Pocahonky says Americans are suffering

How would any of these people do anything different?

Democrats are supposed to be about choice, but are not.

Vegas Debate: Buttplug's got a point

Bloomie's no Democrat, and neither is Sanders.

Bernie Sanders says military socialism is bad socialism, social socialism is good socialism, doesn't get it that most military spending is on PEOPLE

The Defense Department knows it needs to become more efficient. It now spends a third of its budget on personnel and maintenance. That will rise to 100% by 2024, thanks to retirement and medical costs. 

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The nuclear family is communist and the US military is socialist, and yet they call it capitalism.

Communist Bernie Sanders won't stop at seizing the utilities, he'd also seize the banks

Mayor Buttplug doesn't care if private health insurance companies serving 150 million Americans fail

China didn't restrict travel soon enough: Between Jan 10-24 trips by rail jumped 17.2% year over year

There were already seven cases of untreatable viral pneumonia on Dec 30, 2019 at the Wuhan Central Hospital, according to now deceased Dr. Li Wenliang.

By Jan 23, 2020 830 confirmed cases and an unknown number of clinically diagnosable cases had piled up, at which time Wuhan in Hubei province was locked down.

Much too late.

From the CNBC update:

China’s railway operator said 210 million trips were taken in the 40 days of the Lunar New Year travel period from Jan. 10 to Feb. 18, state news agency Xinhua reported. That number marked a 48% decline from last year.

During roughly the first two weeks of the travel period, through Jan. 24 (Lunar New Year eve), 168 million trips were taken, an increase of 17.2% from the corresponding holiday travel season last year, the report said. For the remainder of the time period, rail trips fell 83.9%, the article said. The report noted the number of average daily trips during the latter period fell to 1.7 million from 11.2 million. — Cheng

Diamond Princess cruise ship coronavirus infections jump to 621

The infection rate for the 3,711 passengers and crew therefore jumps to 16.7%.