A Corona Virus Blog
Not sure the cruising industry can recover from this event. They have turned in to giant floating Petri Dishes filled with older travelers. Gov. Gavin Newsom said that the thousands of passengers who will be leaving the ship won’t be heading back to their home communities. They’ll be transported to federal isolation facilities or taken to hospitals, if necessary. Crew members will be quarantined on the ship itself, which won’t stay in Oakland.
Coronavirus cases in New York surged by more than 4,500 on Saturday. The virus killed at least 15 more people in the city on Saturday, bringing the death toll to 60. According to Johns Hopkins University, there are more than 25,000 cases with 300 deaths. New York, New Jersey and Connecticut are asking people to stay at home.
MLB is keeping hope alive for the start of the of the baseball season. Spring training is being suspended, but with an optimistic eye of starting in the summer.
Yesterday, the NBA canceled (suspended) its season. Now the NCAA is canceling all of its upcoming events.
“NCAA President Mark Emmert and the Board of Governors canceled the Division I men’s and women’s 2020 basketball tournaments, as well as all remaining winter and spring NCAA championships. This decision is based on the evolving COVID-19 public health threat, our ability to ensure the events do not contribute to spread of the pandemic, and the impracticality of hosting such events at any time during this academic year given ongoing decisions by other entities.”
The Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) announced Wednesday that the coronavirus strain known as COVID-19 is now officially classified as a pandemic. The director also noted that although this distinction “does not change WHO’s assessment of the threat posed by this virus,” it should also be recognized that “we have never before seen a pandemic that can be controlled.”
WHO has previously avoided using the term “pandemic” in conjunction with COVID-19 throughout the various stages of the outbreak. The Director made a similar statement to the press just two days ago and avoided the term, referring to COVID-19 exclusively as an epidemic and outbreak. They justified this policy under the rationale that the word pandemic itself “can cause unreasonable fear, or unjustified acceptance that the fight is over, leading to unnecessary suffering and death.” However, WHO has grown “concerned both by the alarming levels of spread and severity, and by the alarming levels of inaction” and has decided to reverse this policy in the hopes that it will spark stronger action in the international community.
I asked a friend over a week ago if he had started to stock up on supplies and he said that this was just the flu and people are overreacting. As I watch the numbers of infected people increase it appears like this is way more serious. He likes sports and I can only bet that same thing will happen with the NHL and MLB.
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the state of New Jersey climbed to 15 Tuesday, state health officials confirmed, including the state’s first death from the virus.
Millions of people in Italy have been placed on lockdown in an attempt to stop the spread of the new coronavirus amid the global outbreak of COVID-19. If this serves as a warning, will the US experience the rapid spread of this disease.
The global death toll passed the 4,000 mark and the spread is not slowing in the US. Washington state has now at least 22 deaths linked to the coronavirus.
Florida: 2 Dead, 12 Confirmed Cases of COVID-19
New York: 89 confirmed cases
Italy: death toll reaches 233
Mass: 15 cases
The CDC now recommends that travelers “defer all cruise ship travel worldwide.”
The U.S. has confirmed 310 cases of COVID-19. At least 14 people in the U.S. and more than 3,400 people globally have died from the virus. Coronavirus updates: SXSW canceled; 21 aboard Princess cruise ship infected; 7 more states report cases.
At this point, it looks like anyone planning a vacation had better get travelers insurance.
