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World

California virus crisis as cruise ship held, funding deal struck

Jocelyne Zablit - Agence France-Presse
California virus crisis as cruise ship held, funding deal struck
In this file photo One of the biggest world cruise liners in the world, P&O's "Grand Princess" stays on dock in St Petersburg port, 24 May 2004. Grand Princess, built in Italy for US$450 million, is the biggest cruise ship which ever visited Russia. Thousands were stranded on a cruise ship off the California coast Wednesday over coronavirus fears after passengers and crew members on board developed symptoms. A 71-year-old man who had been on board the same vessel during its previous voyage to Mexico died after contracting the new coronavirus, becoming the first fatal case in California, operator Princess Cruises and California Governor Gavin Newsom said Wednesday.
AFP / Intrespress / Stringer

LOS ANGELES, United States — California declared a state of emergency over the novel coronavirus Wednesday as a cruise ship was held off the coast over fears of a new outbreak.

Separately, the federal government said it was going to buy 500 million respirators to stockpile for use by healthcare professionals.

The measures came as the death toll in the United States hit 11, including the first fatality in California, and lawmakers in Congress agreed to provide more than $8 billion to fight the rapidly spreading disease.

California Governor Gavin Newsom announced the emergency measures as he reported the death of an elderly person who had taken a cruise to Mexico.

"The State of California is deploying every level of government to help identify cases and slow the spread of this coronavirus," Newsom told reporters.

The emergency proclamation would help the state prepare "in the event it spreads more broadly," he said.

Thousands traveling aboard the Grand Princess — the same cruise ship on which California's first victim was thought to have contracted the virus — were held offshore Wednesday night.

The ship cut short its current voyage back from Hawaii after passengers and crew members developed symptoms. But its planned return to San Francisco was held up in order to carry out testing on board for those potentially infected.

"We're holding that ship, which (has) thousands of passengers as well, off the coast, and we'll be conducting those tests," Newsom told a press conference.

Eleven passengers and 10 crew members were potentially infected with the virus, Newsom said.

Some 62 guests who remained on board from the earlier Mexico voyage were being restricted to their cabins for testing, the Princess Cruises company said in a statement to AFP.

"In an abundance of caution, these guests and other potential close crew contacts have been asked to remain in their staterooms until screened by our onboard medical team," it said.

In total, some 2,500 passengers plus crew — typically up to 1,150 — were on board for its Mexico voyage, said Newsom.

The Grand Princess belongs to Princess Cruises, the same company which operated the coronavirus-stricken ship held off Japan last month on which more than 700 people on board tested positive.

'Necessary protections'

Earlier in the day, health officials in nearby Washington state said a 10th person had died there.

Los Angeles County officials reported six new cases in the West Coast metropolis, while the number of confirmed cases in New York state rose to 11.

One of the Los Angeles cases concerns a medical screener at the city's international airport checking overseas travelers for symptoms.

The Department of Homeland Security said the worker was under self-quarantine at home along with family members and was showing mild symptoms.

"DHS is happy to report that this individual was highly trained and did everything right both on the job and when they began to feel sick," a statement said.

"We are told the individual wore all the correct protective equipment and took necessary protections on the job."

Nationwide, more than 130 people have been infected, with the virus detected in more than a dozen states.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Republicans and Democrats had reached a deal to fund the response to the outbreak to the tune of $8.3 billion.

The House of Representatives passed the measure, and the Senate was to vote Thursday.

Vice President Mike Pence, the White House's pointman on the crisis, told reporters he would be traveling to Minnesota Thursday to visit a plant manufacturing personal protective equipment including masks. 

He will then visit Washington state and meet with Governor Jay Inslee to review containment efforts in the Seattle area.

'Coordinated, fully-funded response'

All of the newly infected individuals in Los Angeles were exposed to COVID-19 through close contact, health officials said.

Barbara Ferrer, director of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, said three of the cases concerned travelers who had gone together to northern Italy — a virus hotspot with more than 100 deaths.

Two other cases involved individuals who had come in contact with a family member who had the virus and the last was the airport screener.

"The step we're taking today is about preparation, not panic," said Mayor Eric Garcetti of the emergency declaration.

Officials said they expected the number of infections in California to rise in the coming days and urged families to brace for possible school closures and the cancelation of public events.

2019-NCOV

COVID-19

NOVEL CORONAVIRUS

UNITED STATES

As It Happens
LATEST UPDATE: October 1, 2023 - 2:35pm

Follow this page for updates on a mysterious pneumonia outbreak that has struck dozens of people in China.

October 1, 2023 - 2:35pm

New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins says on Sunday that he had contracted COVID-19, testing positive at a key point in his flailing campaign for re-election.

Hipkins saYS on his official social media feed that he would need to isolate for up to five days -- less than two weeks before his country's general election.

The leader of the centre-left Labour Party said he started to experience cold symptoms on Saturday and had cancelled most of his weekend engagements. — AFP

August 18, 2023 - 4:25pm

The World Health Organization and US health authorities say Friday they are closely monitoring a new variant of COVID-19, although the potential impact of BA.2.86 is currently unknown. 

The WHO classified the new variant as one under surveillance "due to the large number (more than 30) of spike gene mutations it carries", it wrote in a bulletin about the pandemic late Thursday. 

So far, the variant has only been detected in Israel, Denmark and the United States. — AFP

August 11, 2023 - 7:07pm

The World Health Organization says on Friday that the number of new COVID-19 cases reported worldwide rose by 80% in the last month, days after designating a new "variant of interest".

The WHO declared in May that Covid is no longer a global health emergency, but has warned that the virus will continue to circulate and mutate, causing occasional spikes in infections, hospitalisations and deaths.

In its weekly update, the UN agency said that nations reported nearly 1.5 million new cases from July 10 to August 6, an 80% increase compared to the previous 28 days. — AFP

June 24, 2023 - 11:50am

The head of US intelligence says that there was no evidence that the COVID-19 virus was created in the Chinese government's Wuhan research lab.

In a declassified report, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) says they had no information backing recent claims that three scientists at the lab were some of the very first infected with COVID-19 and may have created the virus themselves.

Drawing on intelligence collected by various member agencies of the US intelligence community (IC), the ODNI report says some scientists at the Wuhan lab had done genetic engineering of coronaviruses similar to COVID-19. — AFP 

June 15, 2023 - 5:42pm

Boris Johnson deliberately misled MPs over Covid lockdown-breaking parties in Downing Street when he was prime minister, a UK parliament committee ruled on Thursday.

The cross-party Privileges Committee said Johnson, 58, would have been suspended as an MP for 90 days for "repeated contempts (of parliament) and for seeking to undermine the parliamentary process".

But he avoided any formal sanction by his peers in the House of Commons by resigning as an MP last week.

In his resignation statement last Friday, Johnson pre-empted publication of the committee's conclusions, claiming a political stitch-up, even though the body has a majority from his own party.

He was unrepentant again on Thursday, accusing the committee of being "anti-democratic... to bring about what is intended to be the final knife-thrust in a protracted political assassination".

Calling it "beneath contempt", he said it was "for the people of this to decide who sits in parliament, not Harriet Harman", the veteran opposition Labour MP who chaired the seven-person committee. — AFP

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