School, college and other closings for Monday

MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all. 

Turn Up Your Support

The U.S. State Department is sending a charter plane to evacuate Americans aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship that is in quarantine in Japan because of the spread of COVID-19, the new coronavirus that was first reported in Wuhan, China.

 to U.S. citizens aboard the ship informing them of the planned extraction from Japan scheduled for Sunday night. 

Once they are back in the U.S., all passengers from the cruise ship will be forced to undergo another period of quarantine at either Travis Air Force Base in California or Lackland Air Force Base in Texas.

Nearly 300 people aboard the ship have tested positive for the virus. Another 67 people aboard the ship tested positive for the coronavirus, Japan's Health Minister Katsunobu Kato announced on Saturday. 

The quarantine of the cruise ship and its 3,600 passengers is set to end Wednesday. But as more cases have been identified onboard, it's unclear whether Japan's ministry of health will extend the quarantine.

If U.S. citizens wait for the ship's quarantine to end and choose not take the charter flight, the State Department said, they "will be unable to return to the United States for a period of time." 

The department said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would make a final decision on when passengers would be allowed to return to the U.S. if they did not take the charter plane. 

France, meanwhile, reported Europe's first death from the new virus, a Chinese tourist from Hubei province, where the disease emerged in December. 

The head of the World Health Organization urged governments to step up their efforts to prepare for the virus, saying "it’s impossible to predict which direction this epidemic will take.”

The U.N. health agency’s director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, told a gathering of international foreign and security policy leaders in Germany on Saturday that the WHO is encouraged there has not yet been widespread transmission outside China and that “the steps China has taken to contain the outbreak at its source appear to have bought the world time.”

"We’re encouraged that an international team of experts is now on the ground working closely with Chinese counterparts to understand the outbreak,” Tedros told the Munich Security Conference.

But he said the agency is “concerned by the continued increase in the number of cases in China,” and by reports about the number of health workers who have been infected or died.

“We’re concerned by the lack of urgency in funding the response from the international community,” Tedros said.

“We must use the window of opportunity we have to intensify our preparedness,” he added. “China has bought the world time. We don’t know how much time.”

The 80-year-old Chinese tourist who died in France was hospitalized Jan. 25 with a lung infection, according to Health Minister Agnes Buzyn. His daughter also fell ill, but authorities said she is expected to recover.

Health

COVID-19

The Associated Press

Author

Wynne Davis

The State Department informed U.S. citizens aboard the quarantined ship that it would send a charter plane to remove them. This comes as 67 more COVID-19 cases were identified on the ship. 

U.S. to evacuate Americans from quarantined cruise ship in Japan

Go Deeper.

Like this?

News you can use in your inbox