Liner kept at sea by coronavirus suspicions
Scrambling to keep the coronavirus at bay, officials ordered a cruise ship with 3500 people aboard to stay back from the California coast yesterday until passengers and crew can be tested, after a traveller from its previous voyage died of the disease and at least four others became infected.
A military helicopter lowered test kits onto the 290m Grand Princess by rope as the vessel lay at anchor off the coast of San Francisco, and authorities said the results would be available today. Princess Cruise Lines said fewer than 100 people aboard had been identified for testing.
‘‘The ship will not come on shore until we appropriately assess the passengers,’’ California Governor Gavin Newsom said.
The precaution was prompted by the death of a Sacramento-area man who succumbed to the coronavirus after he had been on an earlier sailing of the ship, in February. Two other passengers from that voyage have been hospitalised with the virus in Northern California, and two Canadians who recently sailed aboard the ship tested positive after returning home, officials said.
The US death toll from the coronavirus climbed to 12 yesterday, with all but one of the victims in Washington state, and the number of infections swelled to over 200, scattered across 18 states. Colorado and Nevada reported their first cases. Nine of the dead were from the same suburban Seattle nursing home, now under federal investigation.
Meanwhile, China’s outbreak of the new coronavirus is holding steady.
Health officials yesterday reported 143 new cases of infection and 30 new deaths, almost all in the epicentre of Wuhan and the surrounding province of Hubei where the virus was first detected in December.
That brings China’s totals to 3042 deaths and 80,552 cases. It still has more than 80 per cent of the world’s cases even though outbreaks are surging elsewhere, particularly Italy, Iran and South Korea.
China said 53,726 people have been declared cured and released. Of those sent home, 27,354 were in Wuhan.
South Korea’s premier has criticised Japan’s 14-day quarantine on all visitors from South Korea due to its viral outbreak, demanding that Tokyo immediately withdraw the ‘‘excessive and irrational measures.’’
South Korean Prime Minister Chung Se-kyun made the comments during a government meeting about quarantine strategies yesterday and said Seoul will pursue unspecified countermeasures.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Thursday that Japan would quarantine all visitors from China and South Korea for 14 days before they were allowed an entry permit. They will be sent to a government facility for the quarantine and will not be allowed to use public transportation.
South Korea yesterday reported 196 more cases of infection with the new coronavirus, raising its total to 6284. It’s the second-highest total behind China.
In Italy, grandparents are ignoring a government plea to stay home to contain the spread of the new coronavirus and are instead stepping in as last-minute babysitters after schools were closed nationwide.
With 148 virus deaths, Italy is the epicentre of the outbreak in Europe. It also has the world’s oldest population after Japan. And the elderly are particularly vulnerable to the new virus.
Schools nationwide were closed on Thursday, leaving 8.4 million students with no place to go for the next two weeks.
So, despite a government decree that aims to curtail the spread of the virus among the most vulnerable, Roman playgrounds indicate the measures had the unintended boomerang effect of sending the elderly out on duty at the nation’s sandboxes, swings and jungle gyms.
–AP