A cruise ship that previously carried two passengers who contracted coronavirus, including one who died, is now being held 400 miles off the California coast after at least 20 people onboard fell ill.
Thousands of passengers are currently on the Grand Princess cruise ship that was banned on Wednesday from returning to its home port of San Francisco from a voyage to Hawaii amid the suspected coronavirus outbreak.
Two passengers who traveled on the same ship on a previous voyage last month between San Francisco and Mexico later fell ill and tested positive for the coronavirus.
The first was a 71-year-old man who died in Placer County, east of Sacramento, on Wednesday in California’s first fatality from the disease. The second, from the Bay Area, is currently in hospital and is said to be ‘gravely ill’.
Eleven passengers and 10 crew members who are currently on the same ship have now reported symptoms that could turn out to be the coronavirus, seasonal flu or the common cold.
Sixty two passengers who were on the previous Mexican cruise where the two cases were detected remained on the ship for the Hawaii voyage as well.
Health officials said those passengers had contact with the two coronavirus cases. It is not yet clear if the 21 people currently reporting symptoms are among the 62 who were on the Mexico leg of the trip and came in contact with the two infected passengers.
The US death toll from coronavirus has now risen to 11 with more than 160 confirmed cases across the country.
An increase in testing countrywide has seen a jump in confirmed cases in Washington state, California, New York and Tennessee with its first case in the last 24 hours.
Two more cases were confirmed in New York City on Thursday, raising New York state’s total to 13. The two new cases – a woman in her 80s and man in his 40s – are unrelated to the 50-year-old Manhattan attorney who infected at least nine, including his family and a friend’s family.
Thousands of passengers are currently on the Grand Princess cruise ship that was banned on Wednesday from returning to its home port of San Francisco from a voyage to Hawaii amid the suspected coronavirus outbreak (file image)
The Grand Princess is currently 400 miles off San Francisco and heading for port having returned from Hawaii after 11 passengers and 10 crew reported symptoms of coronavirus
The string of cases has prompted California, Washington state, Florida and Hawaii to declare statewide emergencies due to the coronavirus threat.
Addressing the cruise ship off the coast of California, Governor Gavin Newsom said vessel would remain at sea until passengers and crew complaining of symptoms that may be consistent with the coronavirus can be tested to determine whether they have it.
Coronavirus testing kits will be flown out to the ship on Thursday and flown back with samples to be analyzed at a state laboratory in the San Francisco Bay area, a process Newsom said should produce results in a matter of hours.
‘So we’re holding that ship, which is thousands of passengers, off the coast, and will be conducting those tests and getting those tests back,’ Newsom said.
‘The ship will not come onshore until we properly assess passengers.’
Two passengers – who identified themselves as Laura and Leah – uploaded a YouTube video showing themselves in their cabin after a warning was issued.
They are shown reading out a statement from the cruise line while one of them coughs, though the pair insist they do not have coronavirus.
California’s first coronavirus victim had boarded the Grand Princess in San Francisco on February 11 for a 10 day voyage to Mexico, arriving back on February 21.
The man subsequently fell ill and went to hospital in Placer County, to the east of Sacramento, where he was diagnosed with the virus before he died.
Health officials say it is ‘highly likely’ the man was exposed to the virus on board the Grand Princess but have not yet said how the disease got on board.
The Grand Princess can hold up to 2,500 passengers and 1,150 crew. It is not clear how many people are currently on board. State health authorities, working with the CDC, are trying to contact some 2,500 passengers who were on the earlier voyage.
A statement from the cruise line said that it had been alerted by the CDC that a ‘small cluster’ of coronavirus cases in northern California had been linked to the ship.
The predicament of the Grand Princess cruise liner was reminiscent of the Diamond Princess vessel that was quarantined off the coast of Japan in February and was, for a time, the largest concentration of cornoavirus cases outside China.
Some American passengers from that ship were ultimately repatriated to military bases in California for extended quarantines.
California Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency Wednesday, and said coronavirus testing kits are now being flown to the Grand Princess
California health authorities have confirmed 53 cases, the most of any single US state, from the respiratory disease that has killed more than 3,000 people worldwide.
The death of the former cruise passenger in California marked the first coronavirus fatality in the US outside of Washington state, where 10 people have died in a cluster of at least 39 infections in the Seattle area. Researchers say the virus may have been circulating undetected there for weeks.
Washington county with nine coronavirus deaths urges ALL its 2.2MILLION residents to work from home, pulls 22,000 students from school and tells everyone over 60 to stay indoors
Residents of King County in Washington state where dozens have tested positive for coronavirus and nine people have died are being advised to work from home to avoid possible exposure.
Nearby Snohomish County has recorded one death.
The health officials in King County, which includes Seattle and is home to over 2.2 million people, have urged local businesses to allow employees to telecommute for the next three weeks in an effort to curb the outbreak.
They are also recommending that higher-risk groups – including people over the age of 60, pregnant women and people with underlying health conditions or weakened immune systems – stay home and away from large social gatherings.
Meanwhile, public officials in Washington have come under pressure to take more aggressive steps against the outbreak, including closing schools and canceling large events. While the state and Seattle have declared emergencies, giving leaders broad powers to suspend activities, they have not issued any orders to do so.
UNESCO revealed that roughly 300 million students have been disrupted by school closures in 13 different countries.
The latest recommendations announced Wednesday came after an employee at Amazon’s Seattle headquarters was confirmed to have tested positive for coronavirus, potentially exposing some 50,000 others who work at the plant.
Hours later officials confirmed that an employee at Facebook’s Stadium East office in Seattle had also tested positive. The company said the office will be closed until at least March 9.
Northshore School District, which serves 22,000 students across King and Snohomish counties, announced late Wednesday that it was closing all 36 of its schools after a parent or volunteer at Woodmoor Elementary tested ‘presumptive positive’ for coronavirus.
Northshore Superintendent Michelle Reid issued a statement saying the schools will remain closed for up to 14 days ‘while we continue to monitor the situation and health department recommendations’.
Reid said administrators plan to begin conducting classes online on Monday. She noted that multiple individuals across the district are under self-quarantine after being exposed to the virus at a nursing home in the Seattle suburb of Kirkland where the majority of the 39 Washington state cases have occurred.
Authorities launched a federal investigation into the nursing home, Life Care Center, on Wednesday.
Seema Verma, head of the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said the agency is sending inspectors to Life Care along with CDC experts to figure out what happened and determine whether the nursing home followed guidelines for preventing infections.
Officials in King County have purchased an 85-bed motel south of Seattle to house patients for recovery and isolation.
Health officials in North Carolina reported that a person from Wake County tested positive for the illness after visiting the nursing home and then flying back home across the country. The person’s flight from the Seattle area to the Raleigh-Durham airport raised fears other passengers were exposed to the virus.
In Los Angeles, a contract medical worker who was conducting screenings at the city’s main airport has tested positive for the virus. The person wore protective equipment while on the job so it was unclear how the worker contracted the virus, Homeland Security officials said.
Tennessee reported its first case on Thursday after a man with a history of out-of-state travel returned home about five days ago and tested positive. He is now under self-quarantine at his home.
Medics wheel out a person on a stretcher from the Life Care Center of Kirkland on Wednesday where a cluster of the US coronavirus deaths have occurred
Most of the Washington state victims were patients at Life Care Center (pictured). The nursing home is now the subject of a federal investigation
Officials in King County in Washington state have purchased an 85-bed Econo Lodge motel (pictured above) south of Seattle to house patients for recovery and isolation
Florida declared a public health emergency after confirming its three cases. Among them was a 29-year-old woman who had recently returned from Italy and tested positive. That woman claims she told the CDC of her symptoms after flying from Italy to New York on her way back to Florida.
She claims the CDC told her she was okay to continue on the flight from New York to Tampa. She was tested for coronavirus after arriving back in Tampa last week. Her sister later also tested positive.
Meanwhile in New York, two more cases were confirmed in New York City on Thursday, raising New York state’s total to 13.
The two new cases – a woman in her 80s and man in his 40s – are unrelated to the 50-year-old Manhattan attorney who infected at least nine, including his family and a friend’s family.
The two patients are currently in intensive care. Officials have not revealed any other information about their cases.
It comes after health officials urged 1,000 residents to self-quarantine after members of two families linked to the attorney were diagnosed with the virus.
Governor Andrew Cuomo said the disease appeared to have spread from a Manhattan lawyer, 50, to his wife, 20-year-old son, 14-year-old daughter, a neighbor and another family of five.
A female healthcare worker who has not been linked to the attorney had earlier tested positive after returning from a trip to Iran.
Health officials said the lawyer, who is in intensive care at the New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center, was suffering from severe pneumonia, which put him in more danger than others who have also tested positive.
His family remain quarantined in their home in New Rochelle in Westchester County. The neighbor, who initially drove the attorney to the hospital when he started suffering from coronavirus symptoms last Friday night, is also under self-quarantine at home.
Following the positive tests, Cuomo said about 1,000 people in Westchester County and New York City will be contacted by health professionals and asked to self-quarantine.
They include some 300 people from New Rochelle synagogue the infected family attends, two people at the son’s university, an unconfirmed number of students at the daughter’s school in the Bronx, seven employees and one intern at the Manhattan law firm and eight staffers at New York Presbyterian-Lawrence Hospital.
The lawyer commuted every day on the Metro-North Railroad from his home in New Rochelle to his small law firm across from Grand Central Terminal. His wife and one of their four children also work at the firm.
Seven law firm employees were identified as being at risk of coronavirus after having close, prolonged contact with the infected attorney.
Yeshiva University, the private Jewish university where the lawyer’s diagnosed 20-year-old son is a student, canceled classes at its Washington Heights campus on Wednesday as a precaution.
The SAR High School in the Bronx where the lawyer’s diagnosed 14-year-old daughter is a student was shut down after his positive test was announced Tuesday. The Westchester Torah Academy where the children of the other family who tested positive had already decided to close until Friday as a precaution.
The World Health Organization has since warned that the fatality rate of the virus (3.4 percent) is higher than initially thought – making it more than three times deadlier than the flu.
Dr Anthony Fauci, the leading expert on coronavirus in the US, told Congress on Wednesday it was still too early to determine accurate mortality rates of the disease in America because it wasn’t yet clear how many had been infected.
U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday agreed on an emergency funding package worth more than $7 billion to address the spread of the disease. The bill would be introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives later on Wednesday.
In New York, health officials put hundreds of residents in self-quarantine after members of two families in the New York City suburb of New Rochelle were diagnosed with the virus. Two more unrelated cases were confirmed in New York City on Thursday, raising New York state’s total to 13. A female healthcare worker who is also not linked to the attorney was the first in the state to test positive after returning from a trip to Iran
There are more than 95,000 confirmed coronavirus cases worldwide as of Wednesday evening
JetBlue cuts flights, Delta halts Japan route expansion and at least five other US airlines waive change fees as coronavirus outbreak sees empty planes and airports
JetBlue has cut flights and Delta has reduced journeys to Japan, while at least five other US-based airlines will waive change fees in response to concern over coronavirus.
In addition to JetBlue and Delta, United, American, Frontier, Hawaiian and Alaskan will waive change fees.
The changes come as plane passengers have been sharing images of empty aircrafts and airport lounges, with one traveler saying 70 seats were canceled at the last minute.
The Washington-based passenger tweeted: ‘Empty flight brought to me courtesy of #coronavirus. The flight attendant said 70 people canceled last minute. #awholerowtomyself.’
Another Twitter user in Houston wrote: ‘The airports are empty too. I flew to Florida today and the plane was half empty. This really has people scared but [expletive] plane tickets are cheap as hell right now.’
One person traveling to Chicago on a red-eye said they ‘couldn’t have had a better start’ to their trip as coach only had 17 passengers and 12 people flew first class on an aircraft with a capacity of 137.
A different person bound for the Illinois city posted a snap of an empty flight and said: ‘Assuming flight is super empty because there are flights to Chicago every hour and not because people are freaking out about coronavirus or some other sign of imminent doom right?’
‘Maybe everyone avoiding Washington because of coronavirus,’ a Twitter user flying to Seattle posted.
Several airlines were implementing cost controls in the most drastic actions by U.S. airlines to get ahead of depressed travel demand due to the spreading coronavirus.
On Wednesday JetBlue announced it has reduced flight capacity by approximately 5% ‘in the near term to address the fall in demand’ as a result of COVID 19 and the airline said it assessing if more cuts are needed.
The New York-based carrier is taking other steps ‘aimed at preserving cash’ including ‘delaying or canceling upcoming events and meetings’ and ‘reducing hiring for frontline and support center positions’.
It is also considering voluntary time-off programs and is ‘limiting non-essential spending’ while demand for flights is reduced. JetBlue began waiving change and cancellation fees last month and said it would continue until March 11 for travel completed by June 1.
Dow opens 700 points DOWN as coronavirus epidemic quashes rebound fueled by Joe Biden’s Super Tuesday comeback
The Dow Jones suffered a sharp drop Thursday opening 700 points down as the coronavirus-fueled volatility extended into a third week.
Stocks open sharply lower on Wall Street, erasing 2 per cent from indexes, a day after surging 4 per cent as mood swings back to fear.
Thursday’s decline comes a day after markets rallied on former Vice President Joe Biden’s strong showing in the Democratic presidential nomination. Investors see him as more business-friendly than his main rival, Senator Bernie Sanders.
But new cases of coronavirus and rising death tolls in the US has seen more pressure on companies, with numerous airlines canceling flights and some even laying off workers. The International Air Transport Association said Thursday they could see up to $113 billion in losses.
Businesses are also lowering their earnings targets or canceling forecasts altogether as it remains unclear how long the outbreak will continue to disrupt supply chains, production and travel.
Ten-year Treasury yields also fell below 1 per cent again, trading last at 0.9745 per cent. Yields have fallen for 11 straight days, the longest slide in at least a generation.
Sentiment had been helped Wednesday by Congress’s decision to make $8.3 billion available to battle the coronavirus outbreak in the US.
The measure’s funds would go toward research into a vaccine, improved tests and drugs to treat infected people.