While the total number of coronavirus cases worldwide exceeded 100,000 on Friday morning, thousands of people are still trapped on a cruise ship off the coast of San Francisco while awaiting test results.
The Great Princess was ordered to stay away until the end of the tests. Authorities say 45 people had experienced symptoms or been on a previous trip with a 71-year-old man who died of the disease.
The United States has confirmed 233 cases of COVID-19 after Colorado, Maryland, Nevada and New Jersey reported their first contacts with the infection on Thursday. At least 12 Americans and more than 3,400 people worldwide have died from the virus.
Meanwhile, the Vatican reported its first case on Friday, and President Donald Trump is expected to visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention again after canceling his trip earlier.
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Here is the latest news on the COVID-19 epidemic:
Trump signs coronavirus funding program
Trump signed the $ 8.3 billion in additional spending to combat the rapid spread of the coronavirus worldwide, approved by Congress earlier this week.
The package, which was passed by the Senate on Thursday, will replace the White House’s original request for $ 2.5 billion, an amount criticized by lawmakers as being too little to fight the virus.
Funding includes more than $ 3 billion for vaccine research and development and $ 2.2 billion for prevention and intervention efforts. The package also includes $ 1 billion for state and local government responses. Each state should receive no less than $ 4 million.
– Courtney Subramanian
Passengers on the Grand Princess cruise still on board
More than 3,500 people remain on the Grand Princess of Princess Cruises off California while the ship awaits the results of the coronavirus tests. Medical staff tested 45 people, according to the cruise line.
The people on board may have been exposed to the coronavirus after having sailed with 62 passengers who had already made the trip from Mexico on board the ship with a man who ultimately died from the virus. Two other passengers on this trip were hospitalized with the virus in northern California, officials said.
The CDC advised customers to stay in their rooms for the remainder of the cruise but did not declare quarantine, according to a statement Thursday from a spokesperson for Princess Cruise.
Although the ship was to arrive at the port of San Francisco, it is unclear when and where the ship will be able to dock after testing is completed.
Here’s what we know about the cruise ship and the coronavirus
– Morgan Hines
Trump CDC’s visit returns
Trump is due to visit the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta again Friday after the planned trip was briefly canceled due to a suspected negative coronavirus case, White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham .
Grisham told reporters aboard Air Force One that the trip was back after the brief cancellation. She said the visit was canceled “out of caution” after the CDC alerted the White House that a CDC staff member was suspected of having contracted a coronavirus.
“I would prefer to go … now that the test has turned out to be negative,” he told reporters at the White House. “They are trying to understand that I am leaving.”
– David jackson
Hong Kong study questions WHO death rate figures
A new study by researchers at the University of Hong Kong estimates the mortality rate for COVID-19 patients at 1.4%, far below the 3.4% proposed by the World Health Organization. The study, a joint project between HKU and Harvard University, estimated that 14 out of every 1,000 people die with symptoms of the disease.
Professor Gabriel Leung, founding director of the WHO Collaborating Center for Epidemiology and Infectious Disease Control at HKU, said the figure could be even lower if the calculation took into account infected patients who did not show symptoms, reported the South China Morning Post.
Asked about the new results, WHO officials in Geneva said that no one knew the true death rate, only the number of people who died. The rate would depend on the total number of people infected, and many of them may never have been tested or counted. In addition, said Mike Ryan, WHO executive director of the health emergency program, an age-specific mortality rate could be even higher, especially for older adults with underlying health conditions.
Vatican confirms first virus case
On Friday, the Vatican confirmed the first case of the fortified city-state coronavirus and closed some offices as a precaution while Pope Francis continued to recover from a cold.
A health center inside the Vatican has been closed for disinfection following the positive test result received on Thursday, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said.
A Vatican official was placed under protective quarantine after a priest from the French Catholic Church in Rome tested positive for the virus. The grievor shows no symptoms of COVID-19 but lives in the same church as the infected priest.
The Vatican Apostolic Library has declared that it will keep its doors closed for the next week as a precaution. The library welcomes researchers from all over the world to consult the Vatican manuscripts and archives.
Which states have cases of coronavirus?
Here is an overview of the states that have reported COVID-19:
Reports suggest that children are not so vulnerable to the virus; disputed data
A report released last month by the Joint Mission and the World Health Organization-China found that people under the age of 18 experience a “relatively low attack rate” of coronavirus, of around 2.4% , but certain American experts have disputed the scope of the data.
The report says scientists have found the virus “relatively mild” in people under the age of 19, with only 2.5% of reported cases progressing to serious illness and 0.2% progressing to critical illness. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention said in a February 24 report that no child under the age of 9 in China died of the infection.
But some U.S. experts say the report, based on research by a team of health officials who visited virus hotspots in three Chinese provinces, may underestimate the infection rate in children. Dr. John Williams of UPMC Children’s Hospital Pittsburgh said the lack of testing in patients with milder symptoms paints a crude picture of the infection. Read the story here.
– Adrianna Rodriguez
Pennsylvania closes some schools
The Bucks County Health Department was also assessing residents who could have been exposed “to determine when they could return to school,” said Central Bucks school district director John Kopicki. Bucks County is located in eastern Pennsylvania, north of Philadelphia.
– Jasmine Vaughn-Hall, York Daily Record
Second Nevada Coronavirus Case Closes Reno School
A Washoe county man tested positive for coronavirus, forcing the closure of a local elementary school where one of his family members is a student, the county health district announced on Thursday.
The man from the Reno area is in his fifties and has linked the epidemic of Grand Princess to Princess Cruises. He is in stable condition and isolates himself at home, said the Washoe County health district.
“The advantage for us is that this person confirmed that it was not a community exhibit,” said Washoe County Commissioner Marsha Berkbigler to the Reno Gazette Journal of the USA TODAY Network. “He was clearly on the cruise ship.”
The first positive “presumptive” case of the virus in Nevada was announced earlier Thursday, a man, also in his 50s, who had recently traveled to Washington and Texas.
– Anjeanette Damon and Siobhan McAndrew, Reno Gazette Journal
University of Washington Moves All Classes Online During Health Crisis
The University of Washington, located in a state severely affected by the coronavirus, will only switch to online courses for three weeks starting Monday.
Ana Mari Cauce, President of the University, Last Friday, she told students that she had made the decision “to increase preventive health measures and ensure a good end of the term for UW students on all our campuses”.
At least 12 people have died from the virus in Washington State.
Cauce said the courts will no longer meet in person during the period. The instructors will give lessons or exams at a distance or, if the nature of the class makes it unsuitable, will base the marks on the work done so far for the year.
“The new coronavirus is not the first challenge this region or our university has faced. It will not be the last,” she wrote. “In 158 years of history, the UW has suffered two world wars, a depression and other crises that have tested our resilience and our compassion” and that generations of students and teachers “have noted the challenge”.
Can money carry coronavirus? WHO advises using digital payments
Since viruses can survive on hard surfaces like coins for days, the World Health Organization would encourage people to use as many digital payment options as possible.
Although paper money, a mixture of fabric and paper, is more difficult to remember for viruses, the health agency says there is no need to take unnecessary risks, reports the Telegraph.
“We know that money changes hands frequently and can pick up all kinds of bacteria and viruses and the like,” a WHO representative told the British newspaper. “We advise people to wash their hands after handling banknotes and to avoid touching their faces.”
WHO has not explicitly said that the money is specifically linked to the coronavirus, also called Covid-19. However, the agency said it was “advisable to use contactless payments to reduce the risk of transmission,” reports the Telegraph.
Representatives of the World Health Organization were not immediately available for comment.
– Dalvin Brown
