More countries report first cases of disease that has killed almost 3,500 people in more than 90 countries.
Grand Princess cruise ship has 21 cases
Vice President Mike Pence on Friday said 21 people on the Grand Princess cruise ship off the coast of California have tested positive for coronavirus.
The ship will be brought to a non-commercial port, Pence said, and everyone aboard the ship will be tested. He did not say which port the ship will go toward or when it is expected to arrive.
Of the 21 people who tested positive, he added, 19 are crew members and two are passengers. Pence said health officials tested only 46 people aboard the ship.
The ship, which was on a two-week voyage to Hawaii, was ordered to return early to San Francisco, California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Thursday, adding that passengers and crew have developed symptoms. A spokesman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that three passengers who were previously on the ship have tested positive, including one who has died.
The number of coronavirus cases in New York state has quadrupled over the last 48 hours to 44, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Friday. “The number will continue to go up because it’s mathematics,” Cuomo said at a news briefing. “The more you test, the more you will find.” Cuomo used Twitter to revise the state’s case count from 33 released earlier Friday to 44.
The state reported 11 cases Wednesday evening, 22 on Thursday, 33 Friday afternoon and 44 Friday evening — a fourfold increase over the previous 48 hours. There are roughly 2,700 people in New York City under ‘precautionary quarantine’ with more than 1,000 others also in voluntary isolation across the state, Cuomo said.
China says all migrant workers will return to work by early April
Almost 80 million Chinese migrant workers who left for the Chinese New Year holiday have returned to work, Reuters reported Saturday, as business in the country slowly starts to returns to normal.
A government official said 78 million migrant workers had gone back to work — that number accounts for around 60% of those who left for home for the holiday in late January, Reuters said.
All workers are expected to be back at work by early April, the official added.
