People look out from aboard the Grand Princess cruise ship, operated by Princess Cruises, as it maintains a holding pattern about 25 miles off the coast of San Francisco, California on March 8, 2020.
JOSH EDELSON/Getty Images
The State Department is warning U.S. citizens against taking cruises because they would put themselves at higher risk of coronavirus infection. After all the drama experienced by cruise ships in recent weeks the notice hardly seems surprising, but it is quite blunt. “U.S. citizens, particularly travelers with underlying health conditions, should not travel by cruise ship,” the State Department wrote in an alert.
Any U.S. citizens who do decide to go ahead with any planned cruise travel should know they could be subject to quarantine procedures in other countries and should not rely on the U.S. government to evacuate them. “While the U.S. government has evacuated some cruise ship passengers in recent weeks, repatriation flights should not be relied upon as an option for U.S. citizens under the potential risk of quarantine by local authorities,” notes the State Department alert.
The government’s top health expert was also direct about the need to avoid cruise ships in an interview on Fox News Sunday. “If you are an individual that has an underlying condition, particularly an elderly person with an underlying condition, right now you should start to distance yourself from the risk: crowds, getting on a plane, on a long plane trip, and above all, don’t get on a cruise ship,” Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said. “That is a health issue.”
The warnings came as the Grand Princess cruise ship that has been off the coast of California after 21 people aboard tested positive is now going to dock on Monday at the Port of Oakland. The ship’s 2,400 passengers will leave the vessel and will be sent to quarantine sites. Almost all the 1,100 crew members will remain on board the vessel and sail elsewhere for the two-week quarantine. Everyone is set to remain under mandatory quarantine for 14 days, which is the presumed incubation period for covid-19.
As the number of new infections appeared to be diminishing in China, new cases were surging around the world. Italy now has more than 7,300 infections, the largest number of cases of the virus in any country other than China. The death toll in Italy increased to at least 366. On the day it launched an extensive plan to restrict the movement of some 16 million people in the country’s north, confusion reigned as it wasn’t clear exactly how the measure would be enforced. For now at least, Italy is not imposing nearly the same types of stringent restrictions on movement as China did and people continued to take trains and planes out of the affected regions.
In the United States, the number of cases reached at least 539 across 34 states and the death toll increased to 22. In Iran, the death toll increased to 149 from 100 a day earlier with more than 6,000 cases. Around the world more countries are canceling events and schools and there are questions about whether campaign rallies in the Democratic presidential race should continue.
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