California virus crisis as cruise ship held, funding deal struck
LOS ANGELES, United States — California declared a state of emergency over the novel coronavirus Wednesday as
Separately, the federal government said it
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
The ship cut short its current voyage back from Hawaii after passengers and crew members developed symptoms. But
"We're holding that ship, which (has) thousands of passengers
Eleven passengers and 10 crew members
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,
The Grand Princess belongs to Princess Cruises, the same company which operated the coronavirus-stricken ship held off Japan last month on which
'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
"We are told the individual wore all the correct protective equipment and took necessary protections on the job."
Nationwide,
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
He will then visit Washington state and meet with Governor Jay Inslee to review containment efforts in the Seattle area.
'Coordinated, fully-funded response'
Barbara Ferrer, director of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, said three
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
Follow this page for updates on a mysterious pneumonia outbreak that has struck dozens of people in China.
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
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
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
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
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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