TOKYO: Japan's health ministry said Friday that it has confirmed the country's second case of pneumonia linked to the coronavirus outbreak in the Chinese city of Wuhan.

The patient is a foreign tourist in his 40s who is a resident of Wuhan. He is hospitalized in Tokyo and getting better, ministry and other sources said.

Before he arrived in Japan on Sunday, he visited a medical institution on Jan. 15 and 17 but was not diagnosed with pneumonia, according to the sources.

On Wednesday during his stay in Tokyo, the tourist visited a medical institution as he had a fever and a sore throat. He was then confirmed to be suffering from pneumonia caused by the new strain of coronavirus first reported in Wuhan.

The tourist said he arrived in Japan with two family members but occupied a separate room from them, according to the ministry. He also said he stayed in his room almost throughout his visit to Japan and always put a mask on when traveling inside Japan.

In Wuhan, he did not recently visit the food market where the outbreak apparently began, while it is unclear whether he had contact with anybody suffering from the pneumonia in China, according to the ministry.

None of the two family members or 20 hospital staff in Japan was confirmed infected. Investigations are being conducted into passengers of the flight he boarded to visit Japan.

At a news conference, health minister Katsunobu Kato said the government will strengthen its quarantine measures and inspection system further.

"It is important to ensure effective multilayered protection," Kato said. He asked the public to respond calmly to the discovery of the second case.

The first case in Japan was reported on Jan. 16. In that case, a Chinese resident in his 30s of Kanagawa Prefecture, south of Tokyo, was confirmed infected after returning from Wuhan.

JIJI Press