San Francisco: As the US death toll from the new coronavirus reached at least 21, California Gov. Gavin Newsom and the mayor of Oakland sought Sunday to reassure the public that none of the passengers from a ship carrying people with the virus will be released into the public before undergoing a 14-day quarantine.
The Grand Princess carrying more than 3,500 people from 54 countries is expected to dock Monday in Oakland, in the east San Francisco Bay, and was idling off the coast Sunday as officials prepared a port site. Those needing acute medical care will come off first.
"This is a time that we must be guided by facts and not fears, and our public deserves to know what's going on," Mayor Libby Schaaf said.
"On Sunday, the US State Department issued an advisory against travel on cruise ships. US citizens, particularly travelers with underlying health conditions, should not travel by cruise ship," the department said in a statement on its website.
The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notes increased risk of infection of COVID-19 in a cruise ship environment. Meanwhile, the number of infections in the United States climbed above 500 as testing for the virus increased.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the National Institutes of Health's allergy and infectious diseases chief, said Sunday that widespread closure of a city or region, as Italy has done, is possible.
Read more:21 people on stranded cruise ship tested positive for coronavirus: US
"You don't want to alarm people, but given the spread we see, you know anything is possible and that's the reason why we've got to be prepared to take whatever action is appropriate to contain and mitigate the outbreak, Fauci said on Fox News Sunday."
US Surgeon General Jerome Adams said communities will need to start thinking about canceling large gatherings, closing schools and letting more employees work from home, as many companies have done in the Seattle, Washington, area amid an outbreak at a care home that has killed 18.
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown declared a state of emergency Sunday after the number of confirmed cases there doubled from the previous day to 14.
On the Grand Princess, Donna LaGesse and her sister-in-law Jackie Eilers had a small celebration in their cabin Saturday night after the captain announced the ship would soon dock.
She said they're maintaining a positive attitude, watching exercise videos and re-runs of The Love Boat." We're keeping our senses of humour. We're laughing at the whole situation, said LaGesse, 64, of Greenville, North Carolina.
We're lucky because we have a room with a balcony so we can get some fresh air. Fellow passengers Steven and Michele Smith of Paradise, California, said they hope their time spent on the ship in quarantine will count toward the 14-day quarantine period on land, but they said officials have not yet provided an answer.
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