Coronavirus News
Coronavirus California coronavirus death linked to cruise ship outbreak – Axios
21 people have tested positive for the novel coronavirus on the Grand Princess cruise ship currently docked outside of California, Vice President Mike Pence told reporters on Friday.Driving the news: California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) declared a state of emergency on Wednesday as the state recorded its first death from the coronavirus — an elderly…
Coronavirus
21 people have tested positive for the novel coronavirus on the Grand Princess cruise ship currently docked outside of California, Vice President Mike Pence told reporters on Friday.
Driving the news: California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) declared a state of emergency on Wednesday as the state recorded its first death from the coronavirus — an elderly patient who tested positive for COVID-19 after disembarking from the Grand Princess.
Details: Princess Cruises confirmed in a statement there had been a “small cluster” of COVID-19 cases in Northern California connected to its Grand Princess cruise ship. Of those who tested positive on the Grand Princess, 19 were crew members and 2 were passengers, Pence told reporters.
- The patient who died “tested presumptively positive on Tuesday at a California lab and was likely exposed during international travel from Feb. 11–21 on a Princess cruise ship that departed from San Francisco to Mexico,” Placer County Public Health said in a statement. “The patient was in isolation at Kaiser Permanente Roseville.”
- Pence said that all passengers and crew will be tested after the ship is brought into a “non-commercial port” over the weekend. There are thousands on board.
What they’re saying: President Trump told reporters on Friday that he would rather those on the Grand Princess stay on the ship, instead of leaving — after which they would be quarantined and medically treated as appropriate.
- “I like the numbers being where they are. I don’t need to have the numbers double because of one ship that wasn’t our fault. And it wasn’t the fault of people on the ship either. … And they’re mostly Americans. I can live either way with it, I’d rather have them stay on, personally,” he said while touring the Centers for Disease Control headquarters in Atlanta.
- Trump added that he has authorized his coronavirus task force, who “would like to have the people come off,” to allow those on the ship to disembark.
The big picture: Princess Cruises also operates the Diamond Princess cruise ship, which was quarantined off the coast of Yokohama, Japan, last month after a coronavirus outbreak that infected more than 700 people.
- The outbreak saw the U.S. and other countries launch operations to repatriate citizens, who were then placed into quarantine. Some 100 left in Japan were placed under temporary travel restrictions.
- The State Department told Axios in a statement on Tuesday, “U.S. Mission Japan will continue to provide all possible consular services to U.S. citizens remaining in Japan.”
Editor’s note: This article has been updated with new details throughout.
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