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In U.S., Cases of Coronavirus Cross 500, and Deaths Rise to 22
A top U.S. health official says regional lockdowns are possible and warns the most vulnerable against travel as a 19th person dies in Washington State.
[This briefing has ended. Read the latest updates on the coronavirus epidemic here.]
Countries turn to stronger measures to contain outbreaks.
The global fight against the coronavirus entered a new stage this weekend.
In Italy, cases and deaths shot up over the last week, its tolls second only to China, and the entire Lombardy area has been locked down.
The country accounts for more than 7,350 of the world’s 109,400 cases, which are spread across at least 95 countries, and more than 360 of some 3,800 deaths.
More and more countries have adopted or are considering stronger measures to try to keep infected people from entering and to contain outbreaks.
On Sunday, Saudi Arabia cut off access to Shiite Muslim towns and villages in the east of the kingdom, cordoning off an area in Qatif Governorate where all 11 of the country’s confirmed coronavirus cases have been identified. And local Saudi media reported that the country would temporarily close down all educational institutions and block travel to and from a number of countries in the region. The kingdom had already suspended pilgrimages to the Muslim holy cities of Mecca and Medina.
In Iran, which has been hit the hardest in the Middle East, state media reported that all flights to Europe would be suspended indefinitely.
The health minister in France, one of Europe’s bigger trouble spots, announced a ban on gatherings of more than 1,000 people.
[Update: Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, wife of Canada’s leader, tests positive for coronavirus.]
Israel, with 39 cases, is considering requiring all Israelis and foreign nationals arriving from abroad to go into self-quarantine, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday.
The U.S. has counted at least 539 cases across 34 states — Connecticut reported its first case and Washington announced another patient being treated for coronavirus had died on Sunday — and the District of Columbia, and logged 22 deaths. Washington State, New York, California and Oregon have declared emergencies. A growing number of schools are shutting down across the country, raising concerns about how the closings will affect learning, burden families and upend communities.
The U.S. Army suspended travel to and from Italy and South Korea, now the world’s third largest hot spot, until May 6, an order that affects 4,500 soldiers and family members. And the Finnish armed forces announced that troop exercises planned for March 9-19 with Norway would be scrapped.
On Sunday, the leading U.S. expert on infectious diseases, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, said that it was possible that regional lockdowns could become necessary and recommended that those at greatest risk — the elderly and those with underlying health conditions — abstain from travel.
Dr. Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said the Trump administration was prepared to “take whatever action is appropriate” to contain the outbreak, including travel restrictions in areas with a high number of cases.
“I don’t think it would be as draconian as ‘nobody in and nobody out,’” Dr. Fauci said on “Fox News Sunday.” “But there’ll be, if we continue to get cases like this, particularly at the community level, there will be what we call mitigation.”
Asian markets plunge, indicating a tough week for financial markets.
Asian markets opened sharply lower on Monday as investors digested the relentless global spread of the coronavirus and turmoil in the oil markets.
Tokyo was down 4.7 percent at midmorning on Monday, while Hong Kong was down 4.1 percent. Futures markets showed investors predicting sharp drops in Wall Street and Europe as well.
The coronavirus has unnerved investors as it spreads, clouding the prospects for global growth. Italy on Sunday put a broad swath of its industrial northern region under lockdown as the virus has spread, making it one of the biggest sources of confirmed infections outside China. France, Saudi Arabia, Iran and other countries also took further steps to stop the spread.
In the United States, the number of confirmed infections exceeded 500 cases. A top American expert said on Sunday that regional lockdowns could be necessary.
A clash over oil between Russia and Saudi Arabia, two major producers, further unnerved investors. As the coronavirus hits demand for fuel, Saudi Arabia slashed its export oil prices over the weekend, starting an apparent price war aimed at Russia. Lower oil prices could help consumers, but it could unsettle countries that depend on oil revenue to prop up their economies.
In futures markets, the benchmark price for American and Europe oil supplies tumbled $10, or about one-quarter.
Investors fled to the safety of the bond market, driving yields lower. In the market for U.S. Treasury bonds, yields broadly fell below the 1 percent level for both short term and long term holdings. The 10-year Treasury bond, which is closely watched, was yielding about 0.5 percent.
In other Asian markets, South Korea was down 3.6 percent. Shanghai was down 1.5 percent.
Italy’s cases and deaths surge as its north is locked down.
Italy reported a huge jump in deaths from the coronavirus on Sunday, a surge of more than 50 percent from the day before, as it ordered an unprecedented peacetime lockdown of its wealthiest region in a sweeping effort to fight the epidemic.
The extraordinary measure restricted movement for a quarter of the country’s population.
“We are facing an emergency, a national emergency,” Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said in announcing the government decree in a news conference after 2 a.m.
The move is tantamount to sacrificing the Italian economy in the short term to save it from the ravages of the virus in the long term. The measures will turn stretches of Italy’s wealthy north — including the economic and cultural capital of Milan and landmark tourist destinations such as Venice — into quarantined red zones until at least April 3.
They will prevent the free movement of roughly 16 million people.
Funerals and cultural events are banned. The decree requires that people keep a distance of at least one meter from one another at sporting events, bars, churches and supermarkets.
The Italian outbreak — the worst outside Asia — has inflicted serious damage on one of Europe’s most fragile economies and prompted the closing of Italy’s schools. The country’s cases nearly tripled from about 2,500 infections on Wednesday to more than 7,375 on Sunday. Deaths rose to 366.
Amid the backdrop of the growing restrictions to contain the virus, Pope Francis on Sunday for the first time live-streamed his Sunday Prayer, an event that usually draws thousands to St. Peter’s Square.
The Vatican also said on Sunday that it, like Italy, would close its museums and pontifical villas.
The number of cases around the world continues to rise.
Even as the rate of new infections appeared to taper in China, the number of cases around the world continued to rise on Sunday, with some of the biggest clusters emerging in Europe.
Besides the sharp rise in Italy, Germany reported more than 930 cases; Switzerland’s total reached 281; and Britain’s health department said that three people with the virus had died and that the number of cases in the country had jumped to 273 by Sunday.
The smallest E.U. nation, Malta, reported its first confirmed case on Saturday: a 12-year-old girl recently returned from a vacation in northern Italy. Her condition was described as good.
The Spanish authorities announced on Sunday that three more people diagnosed with coronavirus had died in Madrid, raising the number of coronavirus fatalities in the country to 13. There are now over 500 cases, the authorities said.
Salvador Illa, Spain’s health minister, said at a news conference in Madrid that several cases in Spain were linked to people who recently traveled to Italy.
“Italy has taken very drastic measures and the most immediate impact is to halt the influx of people from northern Italy,” Mr. Illa added.
Iraq reported 62 confirmed cases and four deaths.
Among Iran’s more than 6,000 cases number a vice president, 23 members of Parliament, the deputy health minister and several other senior officials. The country raised its death toll to 149 from 100 a day earlier, which includes a senior adviser to the country’s supreme leader and Fatemeh Rahbar, a member of Parliament.
Meanwhile, China’s new infections from the coronavirus continue to fall. The government on Sunday confirmed 40 new cases of infection from the virus, and another 22 deaths. Of the new infections, 36 were in Hubei, the central Chinese province where the outbreak began. The remaining four were people confirmed with the virus after arriving from abroad, meaning that for two successive days — at least according to the official data — China has recorded no new locally borne infections from the coronavirus outside of Hubei.
But overall China remains by far the worst hit country from the epidemic. In total, 80,735 people in China have been infected with the virus, and 3,119 have died from it, according to the official data, which may undercount both figures.
The State Department warns against cruises.
The State Department on Sunday advised Americans against traveling on cruise ships, warning that cruises presented a higher risk of a coronavirus infection and made U.S. citizens vulnerable to possible international travel restrictions, including quarantines.
“U.S. citizens, particularly travelers with underlying health conditions, should not travel by cruise ship,” the State Department wrote in an alert posted to its website. U.S. citizens should not rely on being evacuated if other countries try to stop them from leaving ships or subjects them to quarantine.
The posting noted that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended that older adults, in addition to those with underlying health problems, should avoid any setting that makes them more vulnerable to disease, like cruises, long plane trips and other crowded places.
In response to the State Department’s alert, Carnival Corporation said in a statement that its brands, which include Carnival Cruises, Holland America Line, Princess Cruises, Cunard and others, will conduct thermal scans and temperature checks before passengers board and during the cruise.
“We are currently in discussions with the C.D.C., World Health Organization and other health officials,” the statement said, noting that the cruise industry committed to an aggressive industry-wide response plan when it met with Vice President Mike Pence on Saturday.
The Grand Princess, turned away from San Francisco, will dock in Oakland.
The Grand Princess cruise ship that has been held off the coast of California after 21 people onboard tested positive for the coronavirus was on its way to dock on Monday at the Port of Oakland, the vessel’s operator said.
More than 3,500 passengers and crew members are aboard, and 19 crew members and two passengers have tested positive.
After the ship docks, those aboard will be taken to military facilities around the country to be tested and quarantined for 14 days, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
According to a statement from the department, about 1,000 passengers who are California residents are to go to the Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield, Calif., or the Miramar Naval Air Station in San Diego. Residents of other states will be taken to the Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland in Texas or Dobbins Air Force Base in Marietta, Ga.
The Department of State is working with other countries to repatriate “several hundred passengers,” according to the statement.
Princess Cruises initially said on Saturday that the ship would dock on Sunday. It later amended that statement after what it called a change in planning by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Ted Cruz and an Arizona congressman will self-quarantine after exposure at conservative conference.
Two members of Congress said they would enter a period of self-quarantine after interacting last month with a person who attended a conservative conference outside and later tested positive for the virus.
Senator Ted Cruz interacted with the attendee at the conference, he said in a statement on Sunday. The interaction was less than a minute and consisted of a brief conversation and a handshake, he said. However, he will self-quarantine at his home in Texas this week “out of an abundance of caution.”
Representative Paul Gosar, Republican of Arizona, also said he would isolate himself out of an abundance of caution.
“I was with the individual for an extended period of time, and we shook hands several times,” Mr. Gosar said in a statement.
The American Conservative Union, which hosts the annual Conservative Political Action Conference outside Washington, said the attendee was exposed to the virus before the four-day event and tested positive for it on Saturday.
Medical authorities said people who have interacted with Sen. Cruz in the past 10 days should not be concerned about potential transmission.
The attendee did not interact with the president or the vice president and never attended the events in the main hall, the union said in a statement. The attendee was quarantined in New Jersey.
Others who spoke at the conference included Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao and Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia. Also in attendance were Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and adviser, and Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son.
On Saturday, President Trump, an admitted germophobe, said he was not worried about the outbreak getting closer to the White House.
“I’m not concerned at all,” the president said.
Mr. Trump also said that he had no plans to curtail his campaign rallies even though other large gatherings of people are being canceled across the country.
“We’re going to have tremendous rallies,” he told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, where he was spending the weekend.
Nearby, the Palm Beach Convention Center was being disinfected after officials learned that a man who had staffed a vendor booth for the biotech company Biogen on Feb. 28 had tested positive in Pennsylvania.
The center has since hosted a rally for Michael Bloomberg, who subsequently dropped out of the presidential race. It was also a pickup point for hundreds of Trump donors who were bused to Mar-a-Lago for an event with the president on Sunday.
Staying safe means caution at the gym, too.
To guard against the coronavirus, health officials have instructed people to stop touching their face and regularly wash their hands. But how risky is the gym?
There’s more risk of picking up the coronavirus at a church service — where people are in close proximity and sometimes shake hands — than a gym, according to Dr. David Thomas, a professor of medicine and director of the Division of Infection Diseases at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
Some gyms are disinfecting more often (the delicate coronavirus is easily killed) and are minimizing skin-to-skin contact with instructors. You can do a few things to protect yourself and others:
Bring your own wipes. Diluted household bleach solutions, alcohol solutions with at least 70 percent alcohol and several common household disinfectants should be effective against the coronavirus, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Protection. The E.P.A. also released a list of disinfectants that can be used against the virus.
Avoid frequently handled machines and equipment. Sweat cannot transmit the virus but high-contact surfaces, such as doorknobs and barbells, can pose a problem. Scientists are still figuring out how this virus spreads, but a study of other coronaviruses found they remained on metal, glass and plastic for two hours to nine days.
If you’re feeling sick, stay home. Wash your hands often and don’t touch your face, and don’t risk spreading the virus to others if you feel unwell.
Apple encourages employees to work from home this week.
Tim Cook told Apple employees at various locations worldwide that they could work from home this week, a company spokesman confirmed.
Mr. Cook called the coronavirus outbreak an “unprecedented event” for the company, according to an internal memo obtained by Bloomberg News. The policy impacts corporate offices in “areas with the greatest density of infections,” such as California, Washington State, South Korea, Japan, Italy, Germany, France, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
Mr. Cook also said Apple will continue to pay hourly workers in “alignment with business as usual operations” and continue deep cleanings, Bloomberg News reported.
Apple was one of the first companies to reveal how the coronavirus has affected its business when it announced last month that it was cutting its sales expectations for this quarter. The company, which is highly dependent on Chinese factories and Chinese consumers, said both the supply and demand of its smartphones were hurt by the outbreak.
Apple’s smartphone production was hampered as factories reopened more slowly than expected. The company, which assembles most of its products in China, temporarily closed all 42 of its stores in the country in January.
Egypt reports its first death, a German tourist.
The Egyptian health ministry said that a 60-year-old German tourist died on Sunday in Hurghada, on the Red Sea, after contracting the coronavirus. It is believed to be the country’s first fatality from the outbreak.
The man was traveling from Luxor, one of Egypt’s most popular areas for international tourism, which emerged over the weekend as the only place where the country has identified cases. He was admitted to a hospital on Friday, tested positive for the virus on Saturday and died on Sunday. The authorities said they were sterilizing the hospital and tracking the people the man had contact with.
On Saturday, Egypt confirmed 45 cases on a Nile tour boat in the area, among both crew and passengers. The outbreak has been traced to a Taiwanese-American woman who was on the boat in January, suggesting the many others could have been exposed in the intervening weeks.
Several cases linked to Egypt have been reported in the United States. In Texas, at least seven Houston-area residents who tested positive were part of a tour group that had traveled to Egypt in February. Officials in Maryland said on Saturday that three people — a married couple in their 70s, and a female in her 50s — had contracted the virus while on an Egyptian cruise of the Nile River, The Associated Press reported.
Egypt is scrambling to protect its tourism industry, a vital sector of the economy, and reassure travelers it is safe to visit after the outbreak on the boat.
As the coronavirus spreads, so does misinformation.
Misinformation about the coronavirus is spreading despite aggressive countermeasures from social media companies.
Facebook, Google and Twitter say they are removing false and malicious content about the coronavirus as fast as they can find it, and are working with the World Health Organization and other government organizations to ensure that people get accurate information.
But misinformation is slipping through. There is so much inaccurate information about the virus, the W.H.O. has said it was confronting a “infodemic.”
Misinformation spread on social media has included rumors that the coronavirus had been cooked up in a secret government lab in China, that Taiwan was covering up virus deaths and that Bill Gates, the Microsoft co-founder who now runs a philanthropic organization, was behind the spread of the virus.
More Times coverage.
The Times is publishing many articles daily on the coronavirus that help inform this briefing. Here is a list of articles from the last day or so.
International:
On Day 1 of Broad Lockdown, a Debate Arises: Can Italians Follow the Rules?
Lessons From the Diamond Princess, as a Ship in California Aims to Do Better
As Death Toll Mounts, Governments Point Fingers Over Coronavirus
E.U. Seeks Solidarity as Nations Restrict Medical Exports
China May Be Beating the Coronavirus, at a Painful Cost
On Nile Cruiser, 12 Crew Test Positive for Virus, and Egypt Fears Broader Outbreak
National:
Nursing Home Hit by Coronavirus Says 70 Workers Are Sick
Forfeited Games and Virtual Learning: Coronavirus Shuts Down Schools
For Urban Poor, the Coronavirus Complicates Existing Health Risks
California Coronavirus Warning: ‘This Is Not Business as Usual’
Political analysis:
For Trump, Coronavirus Proves to Be an Enemy He Can’t Tweet Away
New York area:
Cuomo Attacks C.D.C. Over Delays in Testing
Men in Surgical Masks Rob Racetrack
Why Closing Public Schools Is a ‘Last Resort’
Business:
Surge of Virus Misinformation Stumps Facebook and Twitter
The Week in Business: Coronavirus Sends Markets Into a Panic
Spiraling Virus Fears Are Causing Financial Carnage
Wall Street Had 2 Terrible Weeks. Here’s How 7 Traders Dealt With It.
Fed May Need to Buy Other Assets to Replenish Tool Kit, Official Says
Why the Coronavirus Could Threaten the U.S. Economy Even More Than China’s
The Week in Tech: Welcome to the Age of Mandatory Videoconferencing
Climate:
Coronavirus Could Slow Efforts to Cut Airlines’ Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Culture:
In 1918, It Wasn’t the Coronavirus. It Was the Flu.
South by Southwest Is Canceled as Coronavirus Fears Scuttle Festival
From Coughing Fits to Closings, Cultural World Girds for Coronavirus
Lifestyle:
Coronavirus Puts a Wrinkle in Wedding Industry
Sports:
An Olympic Doctor Discusses the Effect of the Coronavirus on Sports
Help:
Gyms and Coronavirus: What Are the Risks
How Deadly Is Coronavirus? What We Know and What We Don’t
What Should My Building Be Doing to Prevent Coronavirus?
How to Help Protect a Family Member in a Nursing Home
Reporting and research were contributed by Jason Horowitz, Vivian Yee, Motoko Rich, Amie Tsang, Yonette Joseph, Pat Lyons, Kirk Johnson, Andy Parsons, Thomas Fuller, Amy Qin, Tiffany May, Elisabetta Povoledo, Choe Sang-Hun, Eric Schmitt, Patricia Mazzei, Maggie Haberman, Tess Felder, Claire Fu, Noah Weiland, Michael Levenson, Chris Cameron, Tariro Mzezewa, Raphael Minder, Mike Baker, Isabel Kershner, Alissa Rubin and Constant Meheut.
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