Contagion Live News Network: Coronavirus Updates for March 9, 2020

Welcome to the Contagion Live News Network. I’m Grant Gallagher and this is the COVID-19 update for Monday, March 9, 2020.

The US State Department is advising Americans, particularly those with underlying health conditions, not to travel by cruise ship. The CDC has noted increased risk of infection with COVID-19 in cruise ship environments. Several countries have denied port entry rights to ships and prevented passengers from disembarking.

US health officials continue to monitor passengers from the Grand Princess cruise ship, which was waiting for approval to dock off the coast of California since Thursday. At least 21 people on the ship have been confirmed to have contracted the virus, with only some on board tested. American passengers will be quarantined at various military bases for 14 days. The process of disembarking all 2,421 passengers and sending the crew back to sea is expected to take 2 to 3 days.

Cases continued to be confirmed across the United States over the weekend, bringing the total to 566 confirmed cases across 34 states as of Monday morning. Six states have declared a state of emergency. Twenty two deaths have been reported nationwide.

The coronavirus control efforts continue abroad as well, with Italy quarantining cities in the northern region of the country just days after suspending school activities nationwide. More than 7,300 cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in Italy.

South Korea has reported around 7500 cases, and on Sunday announced 179 new cases. This is the lowest 1-day total for the country in about 2 weeks. Public health officials remain cautiously optimistic about the slowdown.

For more information on COVID-19, visit ContagionLive.com. To track the spread of coronavirus in the United States and abroad, be sure to use the Contagion Outbreak Monitor.

For the Contagion Live News Network, I’m Grant Gallagher. Thanks for watching.