A cruise ship remains at a safe distance from San Francisco and the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Washington state rose to 70 on Thursday – pushing the U.S. total above 220 – as the global fight against the epidemic intensified.
The nation’s death toll has risen to 12, 11 of them in Washington. Fifty-one of the confirmed cases are located in King County, Seattle, where ten deaths occurred, public health officials said. Many of the cases result from an outbreak in the Kirkland Life Care Center.
Neighboring Snohomish County had 18 cases and Grant County in the central part of the state reported its first case Thursday.
More than 3,300 deaths and nearly 100,000 cases have been confirmed worldwide, most of them in mainland China.
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Here are the latest news on the outbreak of COVID-19:
The health conference Trump had to attend canceled
The conference of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society that President Donald Trump was scheduled to speak in Orlando next week was canceled Thursday. Officials said the decision was “clearly necessary” and “inevitable”.
“Based on evaluating changing circumstances and coordinating with an external advisory group of medical professionals to support evidence-based decision making, it is clear that it would be an unacceptable risk to bring so many thousands of people together in Orlando next week,” Hal Wolf, president and CEO of HIMSS, he said in a press release.
This will be the first time in 58 years that the event has been canceled, HIMSS said.
The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society is an American non-profit association dedicated to improving health care in terms of quality, safety, affordability and access through the best use of information technology and management systems.
Cruise ship kept away from San Francisco
About 3,500 passengers are asked to stay in their rooms on Princess Cruises’ Grand Princess cruise ship off the coast of California while awaiting coronavirus test results, regardless of whether they were one of the fewer than 100 passengers who were tested.
A Coast Guard helicopter dropped test kits on the 951-foot Grand Princess on Thursday while the ship was anchored off Northern California, and authorities said the results would be available on Friday.
Passengers on board the ship may have been exposed to the coronavirus after sailing with 62 passengers, according to company officials who had previously been traveling with a man who eventually died of the virus. The group of less than 100 identified for the tests includes passengers who have sailed on the previous voyage and remain on board and passengers and crew who exhibit coronavirus symptoms.
– Morgan Hines
CDC cancels employee travel
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is canceling trips not essential for employees.
According to an internal e-mail obtained from the US TODAY, the agency, as well as the Agency for Toxic Substances and the Disease Registry, “is canceling all trips except mission-critical and response-related trips.”
The email, with the subject “Health and safety protection during the COVID-19 response”, encourages CDC supervisors to consider the possibility of teleworking employees “to ensure the safety of CDC staff”.
– Curtis Tate
Dow collapses 970 points
Treasury bond yields fell to lower levels as the market turned back fearing for the effects of a rapidly spreading virus in its latest yo-yo move. Now that a growing list of companies are warning of how the virus is affecting their sales and profits, investors are left with much uncertainty as to how much economic growth and corporate profits will be affected.
– Jessica Menton
Colorado, Maryland report the first cases
Colorado Governor Jared Polis tweeted that the state has two suspected positive cases of viruses.
One is a 30-year-old male who has had contact with a known case of COVID-19. Health officials have reported that the man is recovering in isolation and that they are working to find other people who may have come into contact with the man while he was infectious.
“We are confident that the patient will have a speedy recovery,” said Jill Hunsaker Ryan, executive director of the Colorado Department of Public Health and the Environment. “Like other states, we expected to start seeing cases in Colorado and that is why we have been preparing for the past two months, in collaboration with local public health agencies and health partners. Our goals are to protect the public from disease, to offer people the care they need and minimize disruptions to daily life. “
Polis later confirmed a second presumptive positive case, which he claimed was not related to the first case. He did not provide any further details.
And in Maryland, Governor Larry Hogan said the Baltimore state health lab confirmed three cases. Patients contracted the virus while traveling abroad and are all in good condition.
NHL game played in California despite recommendations from the health board
Although Santa Clara County health officials demand that sports teams and other large rallies cancel events due to the coronavirus, San Jose sharks have decided to play their scheduled game Thursday night against Minnesota Wild.
With confirmed cases of coronavirus in the county on the rise, Santa Clara County public health officials held a press conference Thursday afternoon, urging the cancellation of large-scale events.
Sharks Sports and Entertainment has released a statement stating that it is “aware of the recommendations” made by the county, but that Thursday’s game “will continue as scheduled”.
The sharks also said in the statement that “they will continue to actively monitor the situation” and “assess further upcoming events in the coming days.
The United States adds virus screening to the borders
Federal officials have implemented some additional measures along the country’s borders with Canada and Mexico to contain the epidemic. Leading US customs and border protection leaders said procedures could also include closing the U.S.-Mexico border if necessary.
“If the health risk changes and the CDC and medical experts decide that there is a greater risk for the Southwestern border and CBP will be part of those discussions of what we need to do to make it operational and reduce that risk,” said the Commissioner Mark Morgan told reporters Thursday morning.
– Rafael Carranza, Republic of Arizona
Reporting cases from New Jersey and Nevada await confirmation from the CDC
New Jersey and Nevada reported their first possible cases on Thursday.
Two patients in New Jersey tested the “supposed positive” for the virus, officials said at a press conference. One case was a 32-year-old Fort Lee man who was isolated.
“Positive presumptive” indicates that patient tests were positive from a public health laboratory but were awaiting confirmation from the CDC.
A man from southern Nevada in his 50s tested “presumptive positive” for the virus on Wednesday evening. He recently made trips to Washington and Texas where the virus was reported in the community. The news plunged the stocks of Las Vegas casinos.
The reports would bring the total number of states with coronavirus cases to 17.
The Senate approves an emergency expense of $ 8 billion
The Senate on Thursday afternoon approved an additional spending package of approximately $ 8 billion that aims to combat the spread of coronavirus in the United States by sending the massive bill to President Donald Trump for his signature.
The package, which passed the Senate with a 96-1 vote, will replace the White House’s initial request for $ 2.5 billion, an amount that lawmakers on both sides agreed was not enough to fight the virus that has rapidly spread across the globe and so far killed at least 11 people in the United States
The package includes over $ 3 billion for vaccine research and development and $ 2.2 billion that will aid in prevention, preparation and response. It also allocates $ 1 billion for the state and local response, about half of which would go to specific cities. Each state would receive no less than $ 4 million.
– Christal Hayes
WHO: no pandemic; nations must “pull out all the stops”
The director of the World Health Organization urged all nations on Thursday to “pull out all the obstacles” in the fight against the coronavirus and reiterated that the global epidemic is not a pandemic. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that the situation in China, the epicenter of the epidemic, continues to improve and that many countries still have few or no cases. But Tedros said some countries have not adequately prepared an outbreak. And he stressed that while public health resources must be directed to treatment, the containment of the epidemic remains important.
“If we get there, we’ll say it,” Tedros said of a pandemic. “We shouldn’t give up on containment strategies. WHO is saying ‘Don’t give up, don’t give up’.”
Megachurch leaders in quarantine
Two high-profile leaders of an Oklahoma-based megachurch – one of the largest churches in the country – are quarantined after attending a conference abroad in which a scheduled guest speaker was diagnosed with coronavirus.
Rev. Craig Groeschel, founder of Life.Church’s senior pastor, and Rev. Bobby Gruenewald, leader of Life.Church’s innovation pastor, attended a February conference in Karlsruhe, Germany. The two men learned of the diagnosis when they returned to Oklahoma.
The pastors said they planned to stay in self-imposed quarantine for 14 days.
– Carla Hinton, The Oklahoman
Trump attributes his efforts, questions the WHO statistics
President Donald Trump tweeted his administration on the shoulder for efforts to combat coronavirus: “With around 100,000 cases of CoronaVirus worldwide and 3,280 deaths, the United States, due to the rapid closure of our borders to date, have only 129 cases (40 Americans brought in) and 11 deaths. We are working very hard to keep these numbers as low as possible! “
Trump previously rejected a World Health Organization report that estimates the death rate at 3.4%, telling Fox News that people with mild symptoms are not tested and therefore distort the data. This issue is often raised by health officials who estimate the mortality of the epidemic. Trump estimated the real rate to be less than 1%.
Tennessee, tornadoes, now has a virus case
Tennessee, which is still recovering from a series of tornadoes and storms that killed 25 people and destroyed hundreds of homes and businesses, is now facing its first coronavirus case. Governor Bill Lee announced the first confirmed case in the state. The patient, a 44-year-old Williamson County man with a recent history of out-of-state travel, is currently being quarantined at home with mild symptoms, said the Tennessee Department of Health.
“We got ready early,” said Lee. “We continue to remain confident in our abilities and the measures we take to prevent the spread of this infection.”
– Brett Kelman and Joel Ebert, Nashville Tennessean
Airlines could lose $ 113 billion in revenue
The coronavirus outbreak could cost airlines up to $ 113 billion in 2020 global revenue, the International Air Transport Association estimated. IATA said the losses would reach at least $ 63 billion even if COVID-19 is contained in current markets.
“The turning point in the events following COVID-19 is almost unprecedented,” said CEO Alexandre de Juniac. “In just over two months, the outlook for the industry across much of the world has taken a dramatic turn for the worse.”
Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly said the nation’s largest domestic carrier has seen a “noticeable, rapid drop in bookings” “over the past week, a drop that continues daily. The dip in new bookings has a” feeling September 11, “said Kelly in an interview with CNBC. Southwest said the financial blow will be estimated at between $ 200 and $ 300 million in the first quarter.
– Dawn Gilbertson
The Seattle district closes schools for 22,000 students
A suburban school district in Seattle closed all its schools for 14 days in an attempt to slow down the coronavirus epidemic that infiltrated King and Snohomish counties. In a long letter published on the Northshore school district website and emailed to all parents Wednesday evening, Superintendent Michelle Reid said she came to her decision with the support of local leaders, describing the move as a “strategic approach” to health and well-being. be staff and 22,000 students in the district.
U.S. schools are in a state of alert amid the coronavirus epidemic:Are they overreacting – or aren’t they doing enough?
Amtrak works to combat the threat of coronavirus
Amtrak is stepping up the cleaning protocol for trains and stations and giving up booking modification rates by the end of April. The rail service issued a statement outlining the major cleanup measures as a safety move, adding that it has had no confirmed cases of coronavirus exposure to passengers and employees and that there are no travel restrictions.
Amtrak says it plans to speed up the cleaning frequency on trains and at stations, sometimes on an hourly basis. Additional antibacterial products, including disinfectants and wipes, will be provided in employees’ stations, trains and work areas.
– Bill Keveney
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Dogs and cats cannot transmit coronavirus to humans
Hong Kong’s agriculture, fisheries and conservation departments have concluded that domestic dogs and cats cannot transmit the new coronavirus to humans, but can positively test low pathogen levels if they catch it from their owners. This occurs after a quarantined dog tested weak for the virus on February 27, February 28 and March 2.
Hong Kong health experts have agreed that the dog has a low level of infection and is “likely to be human-to-animal transmission.” The dog will be tested again before being released. The department suggested quarantining all pets, including dogs and cats, from families where someone has successfully tested the virus.
– Adrianna Rodriguez
Iran: put that paper money down
Iranian authorities ordered the closure of all educational and cultural institutions across the nation during the Persian New Year on March 20 and urged citizens not to use paper money as the coronavirus death toll rose to 107. More than 3,500 virus cases have been confirmed there. Officials also set up checkpoints to limit travel between major cities and Tehran announced that all public places in the city, including subway trains and buses, are being disinfected every hour.
How many cases of coronavirus in the United States and where?
There have been at least 215 confirmed cases since Thursday afternoon, according to a coronavirus dashboard operated by Johns Hopkins University. This number is expected to increase, as the CDC has expanded its testing efforts and encouraged further tests at health centers across the country. Common signs of infection include fever, cough and breathing difficulties. If the infection worsens, it can cause pneumonia, severe acute respiratory syndrome, kidney failure and death.
What is the death toll from coronaviruses worldwide?
The global death toll was at least 3,348 on Thursday afternoon, with over 2,900 in mainland China, where the outbreak broke out in the bustling capital of Hubei province, Wuhan. The worldwide number of confirmed cases was 97,879.
Map of coronavirus cases in the United States
Here’s how coronavirus is spreading in the United States