2,000 on board virus-hit cruise ship wait their turn to leave

OAKLAND, Calif. — Thousands of increasingly bored and restless passengers aboard a cruise ship struck by the coronavirus waited for their turn Tuesday to get off the vessel and go into two weeks of quarantine at military bases around the U..S.

After days of being forced to idle off the Northern California coast, the Grand Princess docked Monday at Oakland with about 3,500 passengers and crew , including at least 21 who tested positive for the new virus.

“We’re trying to stay calm and were trying to stay positive, but it’s getting harder and harder. They can’t make up their minds how to keep us safe,” said passenger Beryl Ward, 77, of Santa Fe, New Mexico.

About two dozen people who needed acute medical care were taken off the ship first, though it was not clear how many of them were infected, said Brian Ferguson, a spokesman for the California Office of Emergency Services. Also, more than 200 Canadians on board were flown to a military base in their country Monday, Canadian officials said.

Three members of a Summerlin family are among the passengers. It is unknown if they have gotten off the ship yet.

About 2,000 passengers, including hundreds of Californians, were still aboard Monday night. The departure of passengers was expected to resume Tuesday.

The Grand Princess ship had been held off the coast since Wednesday because of evidence that it was the breeding ground for more than 20 infections tied to a previous voyage.

The ship carried people from 54 countries. Authorities said foreigners would be flown home, while U.S. passengers would be flown or bused to military bases in California, Texas and Georgia for testing and 14-day quarantines. Some passengers arrived Monday night at Travis Air Force Base in Northern California.

Death in New Jersey

The first New Jersey death in a case of the new coronavirus was announced Tuesday.

Gov. Phil Murphy said in an emailed statement that the person who died was a man in his 60s in Bergen County.

The number of cases in New Jersey is up to 15.

More details will be released in a news conference Tuesday afternoon.

Seattle very quiet

The coronavirus outbreak has largely emptied Seattle’s usually busy downtown streets after Amazon and other companies told tens of thousands of people to work from home. That means far fewer customers for restaurants, shops and other businesses.

The Seattle area is dealing with the worst COVID-19 outbreak in the country, with at least 22 deaths, and businesses are bracing for the cascading effect of losing customers for the foreseeable future. Hotel bookings dropped as big conventions, including the Emerald City Comic Con, were canceled or postponed.

“You can see it and feel it on the streets. You can see it in restaurants and hotel lobbies,” said Jon Scholes, president and CEO of the Downtown Seattle Association.

Scholes said the downtown street outside his window was nearly completely empty late last week. He watched a normally crowded bus drive by with almost no passengers.

The Whole Foods Market in the heart of Amazon’s Seattle campus also was barely filled with customers Monday morning, when lines of shoppers usually crowd checkout lines.

In addition to Amazon, other employers have told people to telecommute. Amazon, however, has said it will keep paying the hourly workers who staff many food, cleaning and other services on its campuses even while they are largely empty. The tech giant has become the poster child of rising rents and increasing income inequality in Seattle — but Amazon’s tens of thousands of employees also make up a huge portion of customers for small shops and restaurants who rely on their business to stay afloat.

Airlines cut flights, freeze hiring

Airlines are slashing flights and freezing hiring as they experience a sharp drop in bookings and a rise in cancellations in the face of the spreading coronavirus.

Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly says the outbreak might do more damage to airlines than the terror attacks of 2001 did. An industry trade group has issued the same warning.

Delta Air Lines said Tuesday that travel demand has fallen so badly in the past week that it expects one-third of seats to be empty this month on flights within the United States — previously the market most immune to virus fallout.

Business travelers are grounded as meetings and conferences are being canceled. Leisure travelers are scared.

Normally airlines try to lure reluctant customers by discounting fares, but that won’t work in the face of the COVID-19 outbreak.

“If you are scared of flying, you are probably scared at any price,” said Delta President Glen Hauenstein.

‘Containment area’ in New Rochelle, NY

Schools, houses of worship and large gathering places will be shuttered for two weeks in a “containment area” centered in suburban New Rochelle, the heart of what appears to be the nation’s biggest cluster of cases of the coronavirus, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Tuesday.

The state will send National Guard troops to help clean surfaces and deliver food in the area, a 1-mile-radius around a point near a synagogue connected to some existing cases, Cuomo said.

The state and a private health system are setting up a testing facility in the area, schools within it will close for two weeks starting Friday and state and local officials are working to determine “large congregate facilities or gathering places” that also will shut down.

“It is a dramatic action, but it is the largest cluster of cases in the country,” he said at a news conference. “The numbers are going up unabated, and we do need a special public health strategy for New Rochelle.”

Walmart launches emergency leave policy

Walmart is launching an emergency leave policy for its 1.4 million hourly U.S. workers that includes allowing its employees to not be penalized for taking time off if they feel uncomfortable working because of fear of the spreading new virus.

The nation’s largest private employer also said Tuesday that hourly workers who work in a store, club, office or distribution center will receive up to two weeks pay if they’re required to quarantine by the government or by the retailer. Workers who have a confirmed case of the new virus will also receive two weeks of pay. If they are not able to return to work after that time, additional pay may be provided for up to 26 weeks for both full-time and part-time hourly workers.

The policy, which covers both Walmart and Sam’s Club workers no matter when they were hired, including part-time employees, comes as companies are wrestling with how to support the workforce in these fluid times.

Colorado governor declares emergency

Gov. Jared Polis declared a state of emergency Tuesday in Colorado that he says will allow him to take measures to slow the spread of the new coronavirus and limit economic disruptions.

The action came as the number of cases in Colorado reached at least 15.

Polis said he directed the state to pursue financial measures to help employees in the health, food and nursing home industries, as well as state workers, to stay home if they get sick — rather than expose others to the virus because they’re worried about losing their jobs.

In addition, Polis said he’s seeking more testing capacity to rapidly identify and isolate cases of the virus. Private diagnostics firm LabCorp is now performing coronavirus tests that will complement state and federal testing, he said.

At least 27 dead

The virus has infected over 700 people in the U.S. and killed at least 27, many of them from a single nursing home in the Seattle area.

For most people, the virus causes only mild or moderate symptoms such as fever and cough. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia. Most people recover in a matter of weeks, as has happened with three-quarters of those infected in mainland China.

Several universities have begun online-only courses, including the University of Washington, Stanford University, Columbia University and the University of California, Berkeley.

Iran will put ‘martyr’ title on medical workers who die

Iran will recognize doctors and nurses who die combating the new coronavirus as “martyrs” like slain soldiers, the country’s supreme leader announced Tuesday as the outbreak killed 54 more people and pushed the nation’s death toll to 291.

The decision by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei comes amid a propaganda campaign already trying to link the fight against the virus to Iran’s long, bloody 1980s war with Iraq. The rising casualty figures each day in Iran suggest the fight against the new coronavirus is far from over, even as more people die from drinking methanol in the false belief it kills the virus.

Across the Mideast, over 8,600 people have contracted the virus and the COVID-19 illness it causes. The majority come from hard-hit Iran, which has one of the world’s worst death tolls outside of China, the epicenter of the outbreak.

Italy begins life under nationwide lockdown

Italy’s first day under a nationwide lockdown came after a decree signed late Monday by Premier Giuseppe Conte ordered the nationwide restrictions on movement. Panic buying erupted, prompting the government to assure citizens that supermarkets will remain open and stocked. Conte’s office said runs on supermarkets went counter to the intent of the new decree, which aims to prevent Italians from congregating. Soldiers and police enforced the travel ban and Carabinieri teams patrolled cafes to make sure owners were keeping customers a meter (about three feet) apart. Meanwhile, neighbors Malta and Italy slammed their borders with Italy shut. The nation has more than 10,000 infected people and at least 631 deaths.

China’s president visits virus epicenter

Chinese President Xi Jinping made his first visit to the coronavirus’ epicenter of Wuhan — his first since the start of the outbreak — as parts of the nation appeared to be returning to normal. It was one of several recent signs of the diminishing threat the coronavirus presents in China as the illness spreads west. In mainland China, where the outbreak emerged in December, almost three quarters of the more than 80,000 patients who contracted the virus have recovered. Employees have been returning to work, but with new routines that include workers wearing protective face masks and not facing each other while eating.

Virus infecting political and military leaders

A growing number of military and political leaders are getting sick with the virus. Poland’s top army commander, Gen. Jaroslaw Mika, was diagnosed after returning from a meeting in Germany. Many other officials are in self-isolation after potential exposure, including President Donald Trump’s new chief of staff, the German interior minister and the Norwegian defense minister. The Spanish parliament’s lower house canceled its activities for a week after a far-right Vox party member tested positive as cases in the country surged to 1,600. This follows the French culture minister and several French lawmakers testing positive for the virus. In Italy, Nicola Zingaretti, the governor of the Lazio region who is also head of the Democratic Party, is also recovering. Meanwhile, four Iranian officials, including government members and a lawmaker, are being treated.

Jews scale back purim festivities

The spread of the coronavirus is forcing the cancellation or a scaling back of celebrations for Purim, usually a joyous holiday when Jews dress in colorful costumes and hold parties. The Israeli government banned gatherings of more than 5,000 people, which forced the cancellation of Israel’s best-known Purim parade, in the city of Holon. In the United States and Israel, some synagogues sent congregation members videos of services.