BEIJING
(AP) — Officials in California were deciding Saturday where to dock a
cruise ship with 21 coronavirus cases aboard and four U.S. universities
canceled in-person classes as Western countries imitate China by
imposing travel controls and shutting down public events to contain the
outbreak.
The
Grand Princess cruise ship was waiting off San Francisco with 3,500
people aboard. Authorities want it to go to a non-commercial port for
everyone aboard to be tested amid evidence the ship was the breeding
ground for a deadly cluster of 10 cases during an earlier voyage.
“Those
that will need to be quarantined will be quarantined. Those who will
require medical help will receive it,” said Vice President Mike Pence.
President
Donald Trump, speaking at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention in Atlanta, said he would have preferred not to let the
passengers disembark onto American soil but would defer to the
recommendations of medical experts.
In
Egypt, a cruise ship on the Nile with more than 150 passengers and crew
was under quarantine in the southern city of Luxor after 12 people
tested positive for the virus. The passengers include American, French
and Indian travelers.
A
Taiwanese-American passenger tested positive after returning to Taiwan
in February, Egyptian health authorities said. A health official said
the 12 people who tested positive were isolated inside the ship while
the rest await results.
The incident raised Egypt’s total number of cases to 15.
Also
Saturday, the port of Penang in Malaysia turned away the cruise ship
Costa Fortuna with 2,000 passengers and crew because there were 64
people aboard from Italy, the center of Europe’s epidemic. It was the
second port to reject the ship after Phuket in Thailand on Friday.
The Costa Fortuna was making its way to Singapore, according to Phee Boon Poh, an executive councilor of Penang state.
The global death toll has risen past 3,400, with more than 100,000 cases reported.
South Korea, the hardest-hit country outside China, reported 448 new cases for a total of 7,041.
China,
where the disease first emerged in December, reported 99 new cases on
Saturday, its first daily increase of less than 100 since Jan. 20. The
government reported 28 deaths in the 24 hours through midnight Friday.
China has 22,177 patients in treatment and has released 55,404.
The epidemic appears to be easing in China but countries elsewhere are reporting increasing numbers of cases.
The
World Health Organization has warned against “false hopes” that the
disease will fade when warmer summer weather arrives in northern
countries.
The
Netherlands reported its first virus death Friday. Serbia and Slovakia
in Europe, Peru and Colombia in Latin America and Togo and Cameroon in
Africa announced their first infections.
Authorities
in Florida reported the first two U.S. deaths away from the West Coast.
They said the two patients were in their 70s and one had underlying
health problems.
The
University of Washington and two other universities said campuses in
Seattle would hold classes online instead of in-person. Stanford
University, south of San Francisco, announced similar plans.
Also
in Seattle, Starbucks announced an employee of one of its cafes was
diagnosed with COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus. The company
said the store would reopen after a “deep clean.”
On
Saturday, South Korean officials said a Korean Air flight attendant who
was in Los Angeles on Feb. 18-21 has tested positive for the
coronavirus.
The
36-year-old woman began suffering fever and muscle pain on Feb. 27,
said Mayor Baek Kun-ki of Yongin, a city near Seoul, on Facebook.
Officials at Korean Air didn’t respond to repeated phone calls.
The
woman in Yongin was the second Korean Air flight attendant to test
positive for the virus. The earlier case was a flight attendant who
worked on a flight from Israel to South Korea on Feb. 15-16.
The
100,000 figure of global infections dwarfs other major outbreaks such
as SARS, MERS and Ebola. The virus is still much less widespread than
annual flu epidemics, which cause up to 5 million severe cases around
the world and 290,000 to 650,000 deaths annually, according to the World
Health Organization.
Governments have imposed restrictions on visitors from China, South Korea, Italy and Iran.
In
Switzlerand, which reported 210 new cases Friday, the military was
being readied to provide support services at hospitals. Serbia said it
might deploy the army.
The top U.N. climate change official said her agency won’t hold meetings in person until the end of April.
French
Health Minister Olivier Veran said children would be banned from
visiting patients in hospitals and other health facilities. He said
patients would be allowed one adult visitor at a time.
Spanish
officials announced a monthlong closure of 200 centers in and around
Madrid where the elderly go for daytime care and activities.
The
global economy faces mounting damage due to anti-virus controls that
shut down much of China’s economy and are disrupting travel and trade
worldwide.
Airlines, hotels, cinemas and other businesses have lost billions of dollars in potential revenue.
China,
the world’s biggest trader, reported Saturday its exports tumbled 17.2%
from a year earlier in January and February. Imports sank 4%.
China
extended its Lunar New Year holiday to keep factories and offices
empty. That sent shockwaves through Asian economies that supply
components and raw materials to manufacturers who produce the world’s
smartphones, toys and other consumer goods.
Chinese manufacturers are reopening but aren’t expected to return to normal production until at least April.
A
total of 78 million migrant workers have returned to work, or about 60%
of those who went to their hometowns for the Lunar New Year, the
Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security announced Saturday.
Chinese
authorities have eased some travel controls but most people in Wuhan, a
central city of 11 million people where the first cases were reported,
still are barred from leaving their homes.
A
deputy premier, Sun Chunlan, who visited a Wuhan apartment complex this
week was met with complaints that its management neglected sanitation
and food delivery. Residents said the complex was hurriedly cleaned just
before Sun’s visit.
“It’s
all fake!” a resident can be heard shouting on videos circulated on
social media. A commentary in the main Communist Party newspaper,
People’s Daily, criticized the apartment managers for trying to deceive
officials.
In
Iran, the number of infections rose beyond 4,700, with 124 deaths. Iran
set up checkpoints to limit travel and had firefighters spray
disinfectant on an 18-kilometer (11-mile) stretch of Tehran’s most
famous avenue.
Off the California coast, passengers on the Grand Princess waited in their cabins for word on its fate.
The
ship was bound from Hawaii to San Francisco when it was ordered
Wednesday to keep its distance from shore so 46 people with possible
coronavirus symptoms could be tested.
On
Thursday, a military helicopter crew lowered test kits onto the
951-foot (290-meter) ship by rope and later flew them for analysis at a
state lab. The tests were ordered following the death of a passenger who
was on a previous voyage in February.
Authorities
say at least 10 other people on the same journey also were infected.
Some passengers on that trip stayed aboard, which increased crew
members’ potential exposure to the virus.
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Associated
Press writers Tong-hyung Kim in Seoul, South Korea; Eileen Ng in Kuala
Lumpur, Malaysia; and Samy Magdy in Cairo and researcher Henry Hou in
Beijing contributed to this report.
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The
Associated Press receives support for health and science coverage from
the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education.
The AP is solely responsible for all content.
