Another cruise ship was stopped. All passengers with symptoms should be tested for the novel Sars-CoV-2 virus before the ship can enter San Francisco.
Sacramento (dpa) - After a first death in California, a cruise ship off the US state coast has been stopped for coronavirus tests.
All passengers with symptoms should first be tested for the novel Sars-CoV-2 virus before the "Princess" can enter San Francisco, California Governor Gavin Newsom said late Wednesday night (local time) in the California capital, Sacramento. On board the "Princess", 21 people show symptoms. According to Newsom, the necessary kits are currently being flown to the ship for the tests.
The older man, who is considered the first coronavirus death in California, had been on the "Princess" in February - the cruise went from San Francisco to Mexico and back. A few days later, the ship was once again set sail for Hawaii with "thousands of passengers" and was now stopped on the way back, the governor said. According to Newsom, the tests should provide information within a few hours on whether passengers and crew on board "only have a cold or are ill with Covid-19". Covid-19 is the name of the lung disease that triggers the novel virus.
Governor Newsom now wants to contact those travelers who were on a cruise to Mexico in February. More than 50 percent of the approximately 2,500 passengers on board were Californians, he said.
Because of the spread of the novel corona virus, Newsom also declared an emergency in California. With an emergency declaration like this, funds and other aids can be mobilized quickly in an emergency. With the most recent death, the total number of deaths in the United States increased to eleven. So far there are more than 100 confirmed infections with Sars-CoV-2. The west coast state of Washington north of California is particularly affected.
