LOS ANGELES, March 9, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – The number of confirmed US
coronavirus cases soared past 500 Sunday, including two further deaths, as
President Donald Trump defended his administration’s “perfectly coordinated”
response to the epidemic.
The surge came as medics headed to a cruise ship off the California coast
to prepare passengers for landfall, and Senator Ted Cruz went into self-
quarantine after shaking hands with an infected person.
Some 30 US states have been hit by the novel coronavirus, with Oregon the
latest to declare an emergency, and 60 million people in California and New
York under crisis measures.
Two more deaths linked to a virus-hit care home near Seattle were reported
Sunday, bringing the nationwide toll to at least 21.
In an early-morning tweet, Trump, who has been accused of peddling
misinformation on the outbreak, blamed the media for trying to make his
government “look bad.”
“We have a perfectly coordinated and fine tuned plan at the White House for
our attack on CoronaVirus,” he tweeted.
“We moved VERY early to close borders to certain areas, which was a
Godsend. V.P. is doing a great job. The Fake News Media is doing everything
possible to make us look bad. Sad!”
But Larry Hogan, the Republican governor of Maryland, criticized Trump,
telling NBC the president “hasn’t communicated the way I would, and the way I
might like him to.”
Fellow Republican Cruz revealed he had shaken hands at a conservative
conference with a person who later tested positive.
“I have decided to remain at my home in Texas this week, until a full 14
days have passed,” he wrote on Facebook, adding he had no symptoms.
Trump and Vice President Mike Pence also attended the Conservative
Political Action Conference (CPAC) near Washington last month.
– ‘Unprecedented and difficult’ –
A Johns Hopkins tally put the number of confirmed US cases at 537 by Sunday
afternoon, with newly diagnosed patients in states including Pennsylvania,
Illinois, Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Jersey.
Medical officers on Sunday headed for the virus-hit cruise ship stranded
off California to begin screening passengers for an “unprecedented and
difficult” landing operation.
The Grand Princess, with 21 confirmed coronavirus infections among 3,500
people on board, is due to dock in Oakland Monday after four days off the
coast of nearby San Francisco.
The operation to move passengers ashore will take two to three days, said
Governor Gavin Newsom.
Carolyn Wright, a passenger on board, told AFP that people without symptoms
were allowed to leave their cabins for the first time since Thursday.
Once ashore, ill passengers will be moved to hospitals, while Americans not
requiring treatment will be quarantined at military bases in California,
Texas and Georgia for 14 days.
Several hundred foreign passengers, representing 54 nationalities, will be
repatriated.
Of 237 Canadians on board, those without symptoms will be flown to Trenton,
Ontario for quarantine, Ottawa said.
The Regal Princess — another cruise ship owned by the same company — was
reportedly held off the Florida coast Sunday as two crew members who
transferred from the Grand Princess were tested.
The State Department warned vulnerable people including the elderly “should
not travel by cruise ship.”
– ‘Flat-footed’ –
Trump has been heavily rebuked for repeatedly contradicting the advice of
his administration’s experts in his public pronouncements about the
coronavirus.
He has downplayed the threat posed by the epidemic, which has killed more
than 3,500 people since emerging in China, suggesting cases were “going very
substantially down, not up.”
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said federal health authorities had been
“caught flat-footed” and had “handcuffed” the ability of individual states to
respond.
“Their messages are all over the place, frankly,” he told Fox News.
Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious
Diseases, told Fox News that the possibility of following Italy’s example in
locking down large sections of the population could not be ruled out.
“You don’t want to alarm people but, given the spread we’ve seen, anything
is possible,” he said.