“During the evacuation process, after Diamond Princess passengers had disembarked the ship and initiated transport to the airport, U.S. officials received notice that 14 passengers, who had been tested 2-3 days earlier, had tested positive for COVID-19.”
— U. S. State Department and Department of Health and Human Services, Joint Statement about 14 new positive COVID-19 cases from cruise ship now in United States.
“It’s really daunting to control a situation like this, now that people have gone all over the world.”
— Peter Rabinowitz, M. D., Co-Director of the MetaCenter for Pandemic Preparedness and Global Health Security at University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, after more than 1,000 passengers released on February 13, 2020, from Westerdam cruise ship in Cambodia and one American woman tested positive for COVID-19 coronavirus after arriving at Kuala Lumpur Airport.
Monday 7:30 PM Update: 73,335 Confirmed Cases and 1,873 Deaths
9 AM Mtn UPDATE – February 17, 2020 News Headline Updates: COVID-19 cases and death toll keep rising: Now 71,449 confirmed cases and 1,776 deaths. Two chartered planes evacuated some 300 Americans from long Yokohama, Japan quarantine on the Princess Diamond cruise ship. The planes landed early this morning back in the United States at Travis AFB in Fairfield, California, and the second at Lackland AFB in San Antonio, Texas. The U. S. State Department and Department of Health and Human Services released a joint statement that: “During the evacuation process, after Diamond Princess passengers had disembarked the ship and initiated transport to the airport, U.S. officials received notice that 14 passengers, who had been tested 2-3 days earlier, had tested positive for COVID-19.” Now those fourteen will be isolated again in quarantine with American medical care, raising the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the United States to 29.
Another cruise ship, the Westerdam, had been prevented from docking for days in fear that there could be coronavirus infections in the 1,000+ passengers. But on Thursday, February 13, 2020, Cambodia’s Prime Minister met the ship with flowers “amid assurances that the ship was disease-free.” But after the ship was emptied of the passengers, an American woman set off a thermal scanner at the Kuala Lumpur airport in Malaysia and has now tested positive for the COVID-19 coronavirus infection. No one knows now how many of the more than a thousand passengers that left the Westerdam for all their different homes and countries will end up positive for the disease as well.
“It’s really daunting to control a situation like this, now that people have gone all over the world,” said Peter Rabinowitz, M. D., Co-Director of the MetaCenter for Pandemic Preparedness and Global Health Security at University of Washington, Seattle, to The New York Times on February 17.
Feb. 15, 2020 News Headline Updates: There are currently 67,194 confirmed cases and 1,527 deaths from the coronavirus COVID-19 outbreak as of February 15, 2020, 18:30 GMT. On Saturday, Feb. 15, 2020, France’s Health Minister confirmed first death from COVID-19 outside Asia in Europe. U. S. will extract non-symptomatic passengers from the long-quarantined Diamond Princess cruise ship in Yokohama, Japan, on Sunday, February 16, for flights back to Travis AFB in California, and Lackland AFB in Texas. The United States now has 15 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in California, Washington state, Arizona, Illinois, Massachusetts, Wisconsin and Texas.
Feb. 14, 2020 News Headline Updates: China Has Locked Down 48 Cities and 4 Provinces = 500 Million People, 6.5% of World’s Population. Egypt in Africa Has First Confirmed Case. Death Toll Now 1,486 and More Than 65,000 Confirmed Cases.
1:30 PM Mtn Update February 14, 2020 Albuquerque, New Mexico – Today Reuters.com has produced graphic analyses of the unprecedented lock down of half a billion people in 48 cities and 4 provinces of China, equal to 6.5% of the Earth’s entire human population, in an effort to stop the COVID-19 coronavirus (See Websites below). Highways, railways and public transports have been shut down and in some communities, residents must register before they are allowed in or out by military or police authorities.
In the past 24 hours, the deaths have jumped to at least 1,486 and confirmed cases around the world now of COVID-19 infections are more than 65,000. CNN reports that the Chinese government explains the large spike in cases because of a change in tabulation that “will now include people who demonstrate all the symptoms of COVID-19, but have not been tested or are believed to have falsely tested negative.”
And in Japan, Kyodo News today reports that COVID-19 infections have risen to 251, with the first confirmed death of a Japanese citizen.
COVID-19 Has Spread to 27 Countries
More Information:
02-04-2020 – Feb. 4th 11:30 AM Mtn UPDATE – 427 Deaths and 20,707 Confirmed Cases in 28 Countries. 11 Cases in USA. Hong Kong Reports 1st Death Amid Calls to Shut Down Border. Hyundai Suspending Car Production in So. Korea.
01-31-2020 – Friday 8:45 PM Update – 7th Case in U.S.; Current Death Toll Now 259 and Confirmed Cases 11,791. Many Airlines Have Suspended All Flights to China. Russia Closed Down Border to China As W.H.O. Declares Wuhan Coronavirus “Global Public Health Emergency.”
01-25-2020 – Saturday AM UPDATE: New Wuhan Coronavirus Death Toll Now 41; More Than 1,287 Confirmed Cases, Including France. 2 Confirmed U. S. Cases.05-28-2009 – Updated – Is A/H1N1 Outbreak A “Herald Wave” Preceding More Serious Fall 2009 Epidemic?
03-21-2006 – One Way H5N1 Bird Flu Could Adapt to Humans
03-10-2006 – The Rapid Spread of H5N1 Bird Flu Virus
10-26-2005 – H5N1 Bird Flu – The Next Pandemic?
04-14-2003 – SARS Breakthrough – Genetic Sequencing of Coronavirus Linked to Killer Pneumonia
Reuters, Interactive graphic of Chinese lockdowns of half a billion people now trying to control COVID-19 acceleration in death toll and new cases, Feb. 14, 2020: https://tmsnrt.rs/39xdhrT
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