Nepal’s government announced Friday that it was suspending climbing permits for Mount Everest and all of the other peaks in the country due to concern over the spread of the coronavirus.The decision effectively shuts down the world’s tallest mountain since China already closed its side of Everest over similar fears. Everest straddles the border between Nepal and China and can be climbed from both sides.
    
Shutting down the popular spring climbing season across the country was a precautionary measure to block any possibility of the spread of the virus, said Surendra Thapa, an official with Nepal’s Department of Tourism, which issues climbing permits.
    
The government also said it was canceling all visas on arrival for tourists and that those arriving after Saturday would be subject to 14 days of self-quarantine. Visitors will also no longer be able enter through land borders and must travel through the only international airport, which is situated in the capital, Kathmandu.
    
Nepal has eight of the highest peaks in the world and the adventurers who head to the country to climb them are a significant source of revenue for the government and the thousands of workers who support the expeditions. So are trekkers and other tourists who flock to the Himalayan nation.
    
Even before the closure, expedition operators in Nepal had said cancellations for the spring climbing season had been pouring in.
    
There had been concerns about the new virus and how it could spread among climbers living for weeks on the mountains in shared tents in extreme temperatures. Fever, coughs and colds are already common among climbers.
    
For most people, the new coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. Some, especially older adults and those with existing health problems, develop more severe illnesses such as pneumonia.
    
The vast majority of people recover from the new virus. According to the World Health Organization, people with mild illness recover in about two weeks, while those with more severe illness may take three to six weeks to recover.
    
Nepal so far has had one confirmed case of the virus. The Nepali student who returned home for a holiday from China has already recovered.
    
Schools in the country have been ordered to wrap up the academic year by next week and close down, while citizens have been advised to stay away from crowded gatherings and avoid unnecessary travel.
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Over 60,000 people have been confined to four towns in Spain’s first mandatory lockdown as infections for the new coronavirus increase sharply, putting a strain on health services and pressure on the government for more action.
    
The situation in and around the Spanish capital, Madrid, with nearly 2,000 positive cases of the new virus and hospitals rapidly filling up, is a source of particular concern for authorities, as Spain follows hot on the heels of Italy in the coronavirus pandemic.
    
The country had more than 3,800 cases by Friday morning and at least 84 deaths.
    
The government has closed museums and sports centers, sent home nearly 10 million students and has asked people to work remotely, while limiting crowds at public events in high risk areas in an effort to contain the spread of COVID-19.
    
But questions are being asked about whether the measures are enough in the light of the experience in Italy, where authorities have acknowledged that escalating restrictions have been unable to contain the virus.
    
The Madrid vice president said Friday that the region is in dire need of medical supplies, despite announcing an unprecedented plan to reshuffle the region’s health system that included pooling intensive care units from both public and private hospitals, and even considering creating additional hospital rooms in hotels. At least two hotel chains have offered their premises.
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U.S. hospitals are preparing for the unknown as COVID-19 spreads in the U.S. They are taking the best practices from hospitals elsewhere and tweaking their own practices. VOA’s health reporter Carol Pearson explains.
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U.S. President Donald Trump said on Twitter Friday morning that there will soon be COVID testing “on a very large scale basis.”  He added that  “All the Red Tape has been cut,” but he did not give any details or indication about when or how the testing would begin.He said the Centers for Disease Control had “looked at, and studied, its testing system, but did nothing about It.”  He added that “President Obama made changes that only complicated things further.”  Trump did not provide any evidence about the changes he attributed to his predecessor. Fewer infections in China
Earlier Friday, China reported just eight new COVID-19 infections Friday.It is an astonishing turnaround for China where thousands of new infections have been recorded in one day.The virus first emerged in China’s Wuhan province late last year.The single-digit increase of new cases does not mean, however, that the virus is on its way out of the Asian nation.  There are still thousands of Chinese who remain infected with the virus that has spread across the world.China state media reported that Chinese President Xi Jinping told U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in a telephone conversation Thursday that China will “carry on its prevention and control efforts in an unrelenting, solid and meticulous fashion.”  In addition, Xinhua reported the president said China is ready to share its experiences with the virus with other countries and conduct joint drug and vaccine research and development.Life upside down
There are now more than 134,000 coronavirus cases in 127 countries and territories – a tiny number out of a global population of 7 billion.But the pandemic is turning life upside down and inside out for nearly every man, woman, and child.Shoppers wait in a line stretching outside of a Trader Joe’s supermarket, March 12, 2020, in the Brooklyn borough of New York.U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi late Thursday emerged from a meeting with lawmakers about coronavirus response legislation.  She said she expected the politicians would make an announcement Friday about measures they had agreed upon that would help Americans deal with the upheaval the virus has caused in their daily lives.Few in the United States have avoided being affected by the coronavirus outbreak in some way, including the president.Brazilian communication secretary Fabio Wajngarten tested positive for the virus, days after he met with President Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate. The White House said the president has not been tested, and Trump said Thursday he is “not concerned” even though he sat next to Wajngarten for a some time.Brazilian officials say doctors there have tested and are keeping a close watch on President Jair Bolsonaro.The wife of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has tested positive for the virus, Canada announced late Thursday.  The couple went into isolation Wednesday after she showed mild symptoms after returning from a speaking engagement in London.NY state of emergency
The largest city in the United States declared a state of emergency Thursday over what its mayor calls “striking and troubling” developments in the coronavirus pandemic.New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said there were 95 confirmed cases in the city Thursday, but said there could be up to 1,000 next week.”Going to this level is not done lightly, but it has reached the point where it is necessary,” de Blasio said. He warned New Yorkers to be prepared for major job losses, evictions, business closings, and food shortages.  Broadway theaters and Lincoln Center have already announced closures, some extending into April.The mayor said the state of emergency gives city authorities the power to close subways and buses, tell people to get off the streets, set curfews, and ration supplies.But de Blasio was annoyed by rumors flying across social media that he was planning to shut down New York City and order a quarantine.”If it’s not coming from my mouth, don’t believe it,” he stressed.Maryland State Superintendent Karen Salmon announces the closing of Maryland public schools in response to the coronavirus during a news conference in Annapolis, Md.,on March 12, 2020.Maryland, Ohio close schools
Maryland and Ohio are the first states to close down all public schools, forcing parents to scramble to find day care or a way to work from home.California’s Disneyland calls itself “The Happiest Place on Earth.” It will soon look like the loneliest place on Earth. The theme park will be closed for the rest of the month starting Saturday.  Disney World in Florida is also closing through March.Congress is closing the Capitol and all House and Senate offices to the public, at least until April.The acting secretary of Homeland Security praised two cruise lines late Thursday for ceasing operations for several weeks in the wake of the virus outbreak.  “I commend Princess Cruises and Viking Cruises for initiating a voluntary pause in their operations to protect the health and safety of their passengers, crew, and countries they visit,” Chad Wolf said in a statement.  “I encourage others in the industry to follow their lead until appropriate safety measure are put in place.”  Viking has suspended operations until May 1, while Princess is pausing until May 10.FILE – Major U.S. sports leagues are closing access to locker rooms and clubhouses to all non-essential personnel.Sporting events canceled
Major league basketball, soccer and hockey seasons are halted indefinitely, frustrating millions of fans with tickets to the big games. Baseball is postponing its March 26 opening day for two weeks. The remainder of baseball’s spring training schedule has been called off.College basketball’s highly-anticipated annual tournament has also been canceled with many campuses shutting down and students taking classes remotely.Belgium, France, Honduras, Ireland, Portugal, and Canada’s Ontario province are the latest national governments to shut down all schools.Travel bans
India has ordered some of the toughest travel restrictions so far, suspending visas for all tourists and foreigners for one month starting Friday.El Salvador has banned entry to all foreigners, while neighboring Guatemala issued its own ban on those traveling from Europe, Iran, China, and the Koreas.U.S. Vice President Mike Pence said Thursday that Americans returning from Europe must self-quarantine for 14 days to help prevent more cases.Economic woes
Iran is asking for a $5 billion emergency loan from the International Monetary Fund. Officials report more than 10,000 confirmed cases with 429 deaths Thursday.Iranian global health scholar Kamair Alaei tells VOA Persian he believes the actual number is 40,000.Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif has appealed to U.N. Secretary-General Gutteres to demand international support for an end to U.S. sanctions, saying they are hurting Iranian efforts to fight the disease.Zarif calls the sanctions “economic terrorism.””We are stymied in our efforts to identify and treat our [patients in combating the spread of the virus and ultimately in defeating it,” Zarif wrote in a letter to Guterres. He called, Iranian doctors and nurses “among the very finest in the world.”UN correspondent Margaret Besheer in New York, VOA Persian’s Farhad Pouladi and Arian Risbaf contributed to this report. 
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Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is quarantining himself at home after his wife exhibited flu-like symptoms.
    
Trudeau’s office said Thursday that Sophie Gregoire Trudeau returned from a speaking engagement in Britain and had mild flu-like symptoms, including a low fever late, Wednesday night.
    
She is being tested for the COVID-19 disease and is awaiting results. Her symptoms have since subsided.
     
“Out of an abundance of caution, the Prime Minister is opting to self-isolate and work from home until receiving Sophie’s results,” the statement said.
    
His office said the doctor’s advice to the prime minister is to continue daily activities while self-monitoring, given that he is exhibiting no symptoms himself. He is spending the day in briefings, phone calls, and virtual meetings from home, including speaking with other world leaders and joining a special cabinet committee discussion on the new coronavirus.
    
Trudeau has also cancelled an in-person meeting with Canada’s provincial premiers.
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The coronavirus pandemic has prompted multiple religious faiths to change or cancel services as houses of worship try to help contain the disease. But some church leaders are also tackling another task: communicating a message that elevates both faith and science.
    
That goal is particularly challenging in a time of sharp political polarization, as partisan scuffles over religion’s influence on policymaking can caricature Christians as skeptical of science. For pastors across Christian denominations, however, rising public anxiety over coronavirus only reinforces the importance of believing in God while heeding the advice of public health experts.
    
“Science is a wonderful arena of truth and understanding truth. It is an amazing tool that can help human flourishing. We just believe it can’t address all truth that exists,” said D.J. Jenkins, pastor at Anthology Church in Studio City, Calif.
    
Jenkins, who got his undergraduate degree in biology, acknowledged that “for a lot of folks, it’s probably pretty strange to see” a Christian or other devout person “asking for divine help, and then also trusting in science and health professionals and doctors. But it’s not strange for me.”
    
While past natural disasters have found a few high-profile Christians asserting a link to specific divine punishment, the coronavirus outbreak has generated little if any of that religious rhetoric. Instead, churches are rising to the moment with a mixture of spiritual aid and practical counsel that presents its own challenges, beyond the political tensions kicked up by the virus.
    
Scott Sauls, senior pastor at Nashville’s Christ Presbyterian Church, said he’s discussing ways to “move toward the pain rather than away from it,” acting on his faith’s edict to love one’s neighbor amid rising anxiety.
    
But that goal is complicated by the social distancing that’s been recommended as a best practice to slow down the disease, Sauls noted, since “Christians’ responsibility is to, No. 1, not send the irresponsible, unloving message” of downplaying the virus’ risk. He said conversations about how best to help have so far focused on assisting the high-risk elderly and health care workers overtaxed by the crisis.
    
National Association of Evangelicals President Walter Kim said his guidance to denominations is prioritizing the advice of the Centers for Disease Control and other experts, because “the sense of reassurance we want to give is coupled with prudence in seeking out the best information.”
    
Citing the high religiosity among early scientific pioneers such as Isaac Newton, Kim said that although friction between faith and science has occurred in the past, “the scientific community and people of faith really should serve as collaborators.”
    
Religious institutions from coast to coast have upended their service schedules to prevent close contact that could spread coronavirus, with Kentucky’s governor encouraging  churches to cancel their services this week. While not every church in the state plans to fully close, pastors such as Steve Weaver, of Farmdale Baptist Church in Frankfort, Ky., said they are keenly aware of both scientific and faith considerations.
    
“We want to take seriously the health challenges that experts are describing and their prescriptions to address those challenges,” Weaver said by email. “However, we have to balance that by our responsibility to continue our regular expressions of worshiping and gathering, which I believe is commanded of us as Christians.”
    
In Washington state’s King County, where the outbreak has claimed more than two dozen victims, pastors are already dealing with the spiritual struggles wrought by the pandemic.
   
 “There’s a lot of fear right now, so we have an opportunity to be bearers of hope and peace,” said Andrew Fouche, pastor of Sunset Community Church in Renton, Wash. Fouche added that he resists “pat answers” about prayer providing complete protection.
    
Aaron Monts, pastor at United Church Seattle, said he’s seen “a tension of fear and faith” among congregants who are not yet directly affected by the virus but facing growing isolation. Last Sunday, Monts said, his church suggested a way for believers to blend worship with doctors’ advice: reciting a 20-second prayer while washing their hands.
    
“We taught, let’s do something a little more intentional with this space” than the increasingly popular advice to sing 20 seconds of “Happy Birthday,” Monts said.
    
Yet the act of prayer itself often proves fodder for political division over faith and science, and the government’s response to coronavirus is no exception. When Vice President Mike Pence tweeted a photo of a group prayer before a meeting of the Trump administration’s virus response task force that he leads, one commentator’s online pushback met with condemnation from prominent Republicans who accused progressives of maligning religion.
    
In fact, Pence’s photo sparked a complex reaction from Christians who said prayer is valuable but not the sole solution to a crisis, whether personal or pandemic.
    
Chris Green, professor of theology at Southeastern University, said he has seen “magical thinking” about the power of prayer among both conservative and liberal Christians, but “that is a minority, very clearly a quieter voice in the conversation.”
    
“Overwhelmingly, I think the groups I work with would say, pray and work” to solve problems, said Green, who’s also a teaching pastor at Sanctuary Church in Tulsa.
    
Katelyn Beaty, a former veteran editor at Christianity Today, described the Pence photo as a politicized bid to court conservative Christian support. But she separated that critical response from her view of prayer itself — as not incompatible with respect for scientific fact.
    
A majority of Americans pray at least daily, according to a 2014 poll by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center. Referring to Muslim and Jewish neighbors who communicate with God, Beaty said that she “would never … assume that because they pray, they’re also distrustful of science.
    
Beaty added that “the `divide’ between faith and science is much more about culture wars and the politicization of everything in our common life than it is about what people think and believe”’
    
Underscoring that point, Pew polling also has found that while 59% of Americans view religion and science as often in conflict, only 30% said science conflicts with their own personal beliefs.
    
James Dew Jr., president of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, acknowledged what he called the warfare'' theory of faith's relationship to science but offered an alternate view of religion and science asdialogue partners.”
    
“We need God’s grace more than ever before,” said Dew, who writes extensively on theology and philosophy. “We also need our medical community to do its best work right now.”
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Russia’s space agency Roscosmos and the European Space Agency have decided to postpone the launch of a joint research mission to Mars until the fall of 2022 because of the situation around coronavirus in Europe, Roscosmos said on Thursday.”…The parties had to recognize that the final phase of ExoMars activities are compromised by the general aggravation of the epidemiological situation in European countries,” the Russian agency said in a statement. 
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A Las Vegas wedding with an Elvis impersonator: Canceled. A 3,500-kilometer (2,200-mile) trans-America road trip, a voyage of a lifetime that took months to prepare: On ice, too.The new anti-virus travel ban announced by U.S. President Donald Trump threw Europeans’ best-laid plans — family reunions, birthday celebrations, vacations, trips for both business and pleasure — into utter disarray Thursday.For Europeans brought up on imports of American television, music, sports and fast food, the idea of suddenly being temporarily unwelcome on the other side of the Atlantic was a psychological shock, too, akin to being spurned by an old and familiar friend.“We were going to get married in Las Vegas, with Elvis. It was going to be epic,” said Sandrine Reynaert, a Parisian who was having to cancel the ceremony on April 20, a date that Gael, her future husband, already has engraved on the inside of his ring.“It’s strange,” she said of the travel ban. “Perhaps an overreaction compared to the epidemic.”Reynaert said she’d take a day off work Friday to devote herself to canceling or adjusting reservations, unraveling the road trip that, as well as Las Vegas, also would have taken them to other iconic spots of Americana: Route 66, Joshua Tree National Park, the Grand Canyon.Likewise, retired French teacher Jean-Michel Deaux spent months planning the 3,500-kilometer (2,200-mile) trans-America road trip that has now evaporated just when it was within touching distance, with a flight into New Orleans that had been booked for March 24.The March-May voyage with his wife, Christiane, would have taken them through multiple states, on a giant south-north loop. They planned to follow in the footsteps of the Marquis de Lafayette, the French aristocrat who fought with American colonists against the British. They wanted to see Amish communities in Pennsylvania, take in music in Memphis and ride a boat on the Mississippi. They even bought extra suitcases to carry gifts and souvenirs back to France.“We’ve been preparing this trip for years,” Jean-Michel Deaux said. “It was going to be a pilgrimage.”“I’ve been studying the maps every night,” he added. “I had already pictured myself on the boat.”As the pandemic grips Europe and the U.S., it continues to ebb in China, where the first cases of COVID-19 emerged in December. China reported a record low of just 15 new cases Thursday and was cautiously monitoring new arrivals who were returning with the virus from elsewhere.More than three-fourths of China’s patients have recovered. Most people have only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough, though symptoms can be severe, including pneumonia, especially in older adults and people with existing health problems. Recovery for mild cases takes about two weeks, while more severe illness may take three to six weeks, the World Health Organization says.Trump, in a rare Oval Office address to the nation Wednesday night, said the monthlong restriction on travel from Europe would begin at midnight Friday.While Trump said all European travel would be cut off, Homeland Security officials later clarified that the new travel restrictions would apply only to most foreign nationals who have been in the “Schengen Area” at any point for 14 days prior to their scheduled arrival to the United States. The area includes France, Italy, German, Greece, Austria, Belgium and others in the zone that has the highest number of confirmed COVID-19 cases outside of China.On the receiving end of the restrictions, Europeans struggled to make sense of them. A Parisian mother said she got woken during the night by her 19-year-old daughter calling from Los Angeles to say that she wouldn’t be coming home for a visit this month because she feared that she wouldn’t then be allowed back into the United States to finish her course of schooling there.There were immediate howls of concern from the travel industry. Americans also scrambled to leave Europe too, even though the travel ban shouldn’t stop them from getting home.“I’ve been hysterical for two days, so a complete panic attack about getting home,” said Helen Neumann from Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, who was flying to Boston on a direct flight from Rome on Thursday. “I was like, I’ve got to get out of here.”Reynaert expects to postpone her trip and the Elvis wedding in Vegas to next year.“We didn’t want to do something conventional in France,” she said.Deaux said he’d try to reschedule their voyage for later this year, in hopes the virus passes.“When I heard this morning, I was very disappointed but not surprised,” he said. “All the preparations, ruined.”
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Scientists are calling on UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) to declare a unique coral reef system off the Egyptian coast a Marine World Heritage Site.  So far, the location has resisted the effects of climate change bleaching coral reefs around the world.  But as VOA’s Arash Arabasadi reports, experts say visitors are now threatening the reef’s existence.
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The new coronavirus can live in the air for several hours and on some surfaces for as long as two to three days, tests by U.S. government and other scientists have found.Their work, published Wednesday, suggests that the virus can spread through the air as well as from touching things that were contaminated by others who have it, in addition to direct person-to-person contact.Since emerging in China late last year, the new virus has infected more than 120,000 people worldwide and caused more than 4,300 deaths — far more than the 2003 SARS outbreak caused by a genetically similar virus.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline. Embed” />CopyFor this study, researchers used a nebulizer device to put samples of the new virus into the air, imitating what might happen if an infected person coughed or made the virus airborne some other way.They found that viable virus could be detected up to three hours later in the air, up to four hours on copper, up to 24 hours on cardboard and up to two to three days on plastic and stainless steel.Similar results were obtained from tests they did on the virus that caused the 2003 SARS outbreak, so differences in durability of the virus do not account for how much more widely the new one has spread, researchers say.The tests were done by scientists from the National Institutes of Health, Princeton University and the University of California, Los Angeles, with funding from the U.S. government and the National Science Foundation.The findings have not been reviewed by other scientists yet and were posted on a site where researchers can quickly share their work before publication.“It’s a solid piece of work that answers questions people have been asking,” and shows the value and importance of the hygiene advice that public health officials have been stressing, said Julie Fischer, a microbiology professor at Georgetown University.“What we need to be doing is washing our hands, being aware that people who are infected may be contaminating surfaces,” and keeping hands away from the face, she said.
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Which disease is the most contagious per person?  Here’s a comparison, based on scientific data.
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One of the United States’ top disease experts says Americans and Europeans should be prepared not to do the things they could do just a few months ago before the coronavirus outbreak.”It doesn’t matter if you’re in a state that has no cases or one case. You’ve got to start taking seriously what you can do now that if and when the infections will come,” National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases chief Anthony Fauci said Tuesday. “And they will come, sorry to say, sad to say.”Fauci used hockey great Wayne Grtetzky as a metaphor for how to deal with an infectious disease — Gretzky doesn’t go where the puck is going, he goes where the puck is going to be.”We want to be where the infection is going to be as well as where it is,” Fauci said.He said it is “no surprise” that the coronavirus outbreak appears to be subsiding in Asia while it grows in the United States and Europe, saying this has been the history of outbreaks of infectious diseases.National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci steps away from the podium during a news conference on the coronavirus in the press briefing room at the White House, Saturday, Feb. 29, 2020, in Washington.The number of confirmed cases in the United States skyrocketed Tuesday to 975 – up 400 in just one day. At least 30 have died.The coronavirus outbreak is affecting two major global institutions headquartered in the United States.The United Nations headquarters has closed its doors to the public – a move likely to disappoint millions of tourists who visit New York City.In Washington, The World Bank and International Monetary Fund will hold what it calls a “virtual format” for its annual Spring meeting next month.In a normal year, about 10,000 people convene at World Bank headquarters for the talks, just blocks from the White House.The bank is also restricting access to its  headquarters from anyone who has been to China, Iran, or Italy in the past two weeks as well as those with a cold, fever, or showing flu-like symptoms.Also Tuesday, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission became the first federal agency to ask its Washington employees to work from home after a staffer was treated for the coronavirus.WATCH: Trump comments on US coronavirus spreadSorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
A traveler wears a mask as she fills out a form at a check point set up by border police inside Rome’s Termini train station, March 10, 2020.Meanwhile, Burkina Faso, The Democratic Republic of Congo, and Turkey all reported their first coronavirus cases and Germany reported its first death Tuesday.A British junior health minister, Nadine Dorries, became the first lawmaker in the U.K. to be diagnosed.As of late Tuesday, the number of coronavirus cases worldwide was nearly 119,000 with more than 4000 deaths.The World Health Organization says 110 countries report at least one confirmed case.VOA Persian’s Shahram Bahraminejad contributed to this report.
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Faced with the spread of COVID-19, the U.K. is advising its citizens to keep calm and carry on.
    
For some Britons, the stiff upper lip is starting to wobble. As Italy goes into lockdown and other European countries shut schools and ban large gatherings, U.K. authorities continue to advise most people to keep working, traveling and socializing as usual.
    
But with officials saying an epidemic of the new coronavirus in the U.K. is all but certain, critics argue that the Conservative government’s low-key approach is inadequate.
    
“Schools should be shut now,” said Rory Stewart, a former government minister who is running to become mayor of London. “All medium and large gatherings should be canceled. All passengers coming from hot spots should be tested and quarantined.”
    
The government and its scientific advisers insist it isn’t yet time for such stringent measures.
    
As of Tuesday, the U.K. had confirmed 373 cases of COVID-19, and six deaths.
    
For most people, the new coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia.
    
The vast majority of people recover in a few weeks. In mainland China, where the virus first exploded, more than 80,000 people have been diagnosed and more than 58,000 have so far recovered.
    
British medics have focused on identifying and isolating people with the virus and tracing their contacts in an effort to contain or, if that fails, slow the spread of the illness.
    
U.K. officials say canceling big events or making large numbers of people stay home at this point would be counterproductive, because people would tire of the constraints just when they are needed most, at the outbreak’s peak.
    
“You need to carry the population with you,” said Susan Michie, professor of health psychology at University College London. “Because unless you carry the population with you, then people won’t adhere to it, or a significant proportion won’t, and then you undermine the whole strategy.”
    
Officials insist they are not complacent, and say the U.K. will introduce stronger measures as the virus spreads. Within the next two weeks, anyone with even mild symptoms of respiratory infection will be told to stay home for a week.
    
Mark Woolhouse, professor of infectious disease epidemiology at the University of Edinburgh, said the government’s response so far had been “measured and well-judged.”
    
“Containment was always likely to fail in the end,” he said. “But I do judge that it has been successful in holding the epidemic back in the U.K. for some days or weeks.”
    
The outbreak is a health worry for most Britons. It’s also a political headache for Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who was labeled the “part-time prime minister” by opponents after his hands-off response to recent floods and early silence on the virus outbreak.
    
In recent days, he has taken a higher profile and, despite past populist leanings, deferred to his medical and scientific advisers.
    
Johnson’s Conservative government is also poised to intervene in the economy to cushion the impact of the outbreak, which has hammered global stock markets and hurt travel companies, airlines and bricks-and-mortar retailers.
    
The government’s annual budget, due on Wednesday, has been hastily rewritten. Treasury chief Rishi Sunak is considering measures to stimulate an economy already weighed down by uncertainty over Britain’s future trade relationship with the European Union.
    
Business groups urged Sunak to let firms defer tax payments, and to back emergency loans for struggling enterprises. Unions sough a guarantee that self-employed and contract workers will get sick pay if they have to stay home.
    
Sunak said the economic impact of the virus would be “significant” but temporary. He told the BBC that the government would act to give businesses “a bridge through a temporary period of difficulty so that they can emerge on the other side and we can get back to normal quickly.”
    
“We don’t know exactly which scenario we might be in, but we’re preparing for all of them,” he said.
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Coronavirus is most dangerous to the elderly and those with weakened immune systems. Since the first fatalities in the US originated from a nursing facility in the state of Washington, there is deep concern among health experts, patients and their families that eldercare facilities are especially vulnerable.  VOA’s Julie Taboh has more.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline. Embed” />Copy
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A barber in Beijing is supporting his wife and child by charging food and other expenses to a credit card while he waits for his employer’s shop to reopen. A waiter at a barbecue restaurant in Kansas City, Missouri, washes his hands more often and hopes for the best. A parcel delivery driver in Britain worries about getting sick from the people who sign for their packages.
    
While white collar workers trying to avoid contagion can work from home or call in sick if they experience symptoms of the virus, that’s not an option for the millions of waiters, delivery workers, cashiers, ride-hailing drivers, museum attendants and countless others who routinely come into contact with the public.
    
Their dilemma is often compounded by spotty sick leave policies or inadequate health insurance coverage, leaving them vulnerable to the fast-spreading coronavirus that has already claimed thousands of lives and put them in a financially precarious position.
    
“The recommendations on what people should be doing to protect themselves really gives a sharp indication of the divide between white collar and blue collar workers,” said Shannon Liss-Reardon, a workers rights attorney in Boston. “Our social safety net is just not equipped at this moment to deal with a crisis like this, and it will disproportionately affect the most vulnerable low wage workers.”
    
For most people, the new coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia.
    
The vast majority of people recover. According to the World Health Organization, people with mild illness recover in about two weeks, while those with more severe illness may take three to six weeks to recover. In mainland China, where the outbreak emerged in December, almost three-fourths of more than 80,000 patients have recovered.
    
While tech companies like Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft have implemented work-from-home policies, only 29% of U.S. workers have that option, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That means retail workers like Mendy Hughes must fend for themselves. The Walmart cashier in Malvern, Arkansas, serves hundreds of people a day and her big worry is what will happen to her income if she catches the virus or comes in contact with someone who’s had it and must self-quarantine for 14 days.
    
“If I can’t go to work, I could try to take a leave but it will be unpaid,” said Hughes, who earns $11.60 an hour. “I don’t know what I would be doing about taking care of my family.”
    
Hughes, a diabetic and mother of four, gets 48 hours of sick leave a year but she fears it wouldn’t be nearly enough time to recover.
    
In the United States, about 27% of private sector workers don’t have access to paid sick leave, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Some countries, like Britain, are looking into helping out non-permanent workers. There is no federal sick leave policy in the U.S., but 12 of the 50 states and Washington D.C. require employers to offer paid sick leave.
    
Some House and Senate Democrats have been pushing legislation that would require employers to allow workers to accrue seven days of paid sick leave and to provide an additional 14 days in the event of any public health emergency, including the current coronavirus crisis. President Donald Trump said he was seeking help for hourly-wage workers to ensure they’re “not going to miss a paycheck,” and he would outline the proposals Tuesday.
    
In Britain, parcel delivery driver Ed Cross worries about catching the virus from the machine he hands people who sign for their packages.
    
“People have coughed on their hand and then got hold of my machine and you sort of make a joke of it trying to point it out,” Cross, 53, said. “But yeah, it’s what we face daily.”
    
“We only have to go to the wrong house and we could catch it, as simple as that,” said Cross, who on a recent day handed packages to 110 people on his route in Whitby, northern England.
    
The British government last week made it easier to collect statutory sick pay and is working on changes to help millions of non-permanent workers like Cross who aren’t eligible for it. In a sign the industry is waking up to the problem, his parcel company, Hermes, announced a 1 million pound ($1.3 million) fund to help couriers who need to self-isolate.
    
Uber, meanwhile, said it would compensate drivers and couriers for up to 14 days if they get sick or have to be quarantined.
    
The viral outbreak has revealed gaping holes in health care coverage at a time when people may need it most. Most European countries and Canada have universal healthcare systems, but the U.S. relies on a patchwork of public and private insurance. About 69% of private industry workers in the U.S. have access  to healthcare benefits, but that drops to 43% of service workers. U.S. employers with 50 or more employees are required to offer health insurance. But the same protection isn’t provided to part-time workers or independent contractors.
    
Waiter Joey Ingham, who works at a barbecue restaurant in Kansas City, Missouri, popular with business travelers, says he doesn’t have insurance. His protection? Washing his hands more often.
    
“If I wasn’t able to come into work, it would be hard to make ends meet,” said Ingham, who waits on 80 to 120 people a shift. If he felt sick, he’d “ probably talk to a manager” about what to do, but noted management hasn’t yet outlined any policies.
    
Liss-Reardon said most gig workers – independent or temporary contractors – she represents don’t have health insurance.
    
“We won’t have a fully insured population until we get universal healthcare,” he said. “There are going to be these huge gaps. The burden is falling on the poorest and most vulnerable in our society. This is just another example.”
    
The American Academy of Family Physicians recommends workers without insurance contact a local health department or community health center for help. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends emergency room visits only for patients who are very sick.
    
In France, where people have the right not to work and get full pay when they consider their workplaces to be dangerous, some service staff briefly stayed home because of contagion concerns. Workers at the Louvre, the world’s most-visited museum, refused to work for two days and were only coaxed back after management introduced a raft of new anti-virus measures.
    
“We are asking for gloves. We are asking for disinfectant gels, and masks for the drivers,’”said Bastien Berthier, of the Paris metro’s UNSA union.
    
In China, where the outbreak has been raging for two months, many service industry workers have it far worse, with business evaporating as people are forced to hunker down at home.
    
A barber in Beijing who would give only his surname, Long, said he is supporting his wife and child by charging food and other expenses to a credit card while he waits for his employer to reopen.
   
 “I can ask for sick leave or compassionate leave, but I get nothing without working,” said Long, 33.
    
Jiang Yanlin, a tour guide in eastern China’s Huangshan region, said she hasn’t earned anything since mid-January and doesn’t have any social welfare benefits to fall back on. Usually she can earn up 300 yuan ($42) a day during the normally busy Lunar New Year holiday.
    
“If I don’t work, I don’t get paid. Everyone here in the Huangshan tourist zone is like this,” said Jiang, 33. “No one is coming to travel. Everyone is so scared.”
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A SpaceX cargo ship arrived at the International Space Station on Monday, delivering the company’s 20th batch of gear and treats.The Dragon capsule reached the orbiting lab after launching late Friday night. NASA astronauts Andrew Morgan and Jessica Meir used the station’s robot arm to capture the spacecraft.The 4,300-pound (1,950-kilogram) shipment contains science experiments and equipment, as well as special goodies for the three-person crew aloft for months: grapefruit, tomatoes, Skittles, Reese’s Pieces and Hot Tamales.This is the last of SpaceX’s original-style Dragons. All future ones are designed to carry either cargo or crew, and will dock automatically rather than require robot-arm assistance. SpaceX has been sending up station cargo since 2012 and plans to start launching NASA astronauts this spring.From 260 miles (418 kilometers) up, Meir congratulated SpaceX on its many milestones, including the fact this is the third flight for this particular Dragon. Spacecraft and rocket recycling, she noted, is “the more sustainable approach that will be paramount to the future of spaceflight.”The Dragon will remain at the orbiting lab for a month before returning to Earth with science specimens.
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Vietnamese authorities vowed Monday to punish anyone concealing sickness after 13 people caught the deadly new coronavirus on a flight to Hanoi, sparking lockdowns and panic-buying in the capital.The Southeast Asian country had previously reported only 16 cases of the virus despite bordering China — the epicenter of the global outbreak — but a cluster of infections was discovered at the weekend among 201 passengers on a Vietnam Airlines flight from Britain.The group were in quarantine Monday and recovering, Vietnam’s health ministry said, with the hospital they were held in placed on lockdown along with several houses and hotels in Hanoi where they had stayed.Vietnam Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc vowed Monday to “duly punish” those who fail to disclose a coronavirus diagnosis, according to state media.He told a meeting of officials in Hanoi that “we need strong, adequate and immediate measures to effectively stop the source of infection”.Authorities have launched an online tool asking all citizens to declare their health status.”Declaring false information… may be subject to criminal handling,” stated an official notice.A 29-year-old woman on the flight from London was found to be suffering from the disease after returning to Hanoi from a tour of France, Italy and Britain.She is believed to have infected her aunt and driver, forcing authorities to isolate several houses near her home and a private hospital where she first sought treatment.The other patients included Vietnamese, British, Irish and Mexican nationals.A minister on the same flight tested negative for the virus but was also quarantined for 14 days with the group.The health ministry said there may be “more cases to be discovered as a result of close contact” with the first patient.People in the capital were seen panic-buying staple items as the lockdown of the hospital began.The infections bring the country’s total to 30, including a man who returned from South Korea, but more than 18,600 people have been monitored for illness or placed in isolation since early February. No-one has died from the virus.Vietnam has granted limited access to visitors from China and South Korea — another major coronavirus hotspot — since the outbreak began at the start of the year, imposing a 14-day quarantine at government-controlled centers.Several sports and cultural events have been cancelled across the nation, but Vietnam’s inaugural Formula One race is still set to go ahead on April 5 in Hanoi. 
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Comparatively speaking, Americans are heavier than the rest of the world. The World Factbook of the Central Intelligence Agency reports the obesity rate in the United States to be 36 percent.  But 25-year-old Zobaida Falah is hoping that her homemade snack bar can play a small role in changing unhealthy habits. VOA’s Jafar Haand has more. 
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A southern Indian state has begun a three-day bird culling process to contain an outbreak of avian influenza, also known as bird flu.Kerala state began the precautionary measure Sunday.The World Health Organization says, “Avian influenza viruses normally spread between birds. However, some viruses have been found to infect humans.  When avian influenza infects humans, symptoms may range from mild upper respiratory infection (fever and cough) to severe pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome (difficulty breathing), shock and even death.””The state government has decided to destroy the disease at the source,” Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University Assistant Professor Abdul Muneer told Reuters.Thousands of birds, mainly chickens, will be killed in the process. 
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Weeks after Beijing was criticized by people inside China and around the world for a sluggish response to the outbreak of a new coronavirus, China’s government is trying to recast itself as a global health leader.China’s early response to the outbreak remains shrouded in mystery, with an unclear timetable about what officials knew and when they knew it.At the beginning of the year, as the coronavirus spread in the city of Wuhan, authorities downplayed the risk and provided little information. Lunar New Year festivities initially went forward, before Beijing dramatically reversed course as the outbreak grew. Now, Beijing is accusing others of the same thing.A nurse in a protective suit feeds a novel coronavirus patient inside an isolated ward at Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, during the Lantern Festival, in Wuhan, Hubei province, China, Feb. 8, 2020.The state-run news media has resumed its cheery coverage of China’s response, hailing it as a model for the world, suggesting that countries like the United States and others are acting sluggishly to contain the spread.”Righteous, the world should thank China!” read a recent headline from Xinhua, the official Chinese news agency.The opinion piece by Xinhua said the West, in particular the United States, “owes China a coronavirus apology” because it argued that the rest of world would have been embroiled in a far worse contagion had it not been for China’s response. That response included proactive prevention and control measures that have begun to slow the spread of the coronavirus that has sickened 80,565 people and killed 3,015 in China alone.As part of its messaging effort, Beijing’s foreign ministry says it has tapped its diplomats around the world to tout China’s accomplishments through more than 400 media interviews and 300 articles.China’s global imageFor more than 20 years China has tried to project itself as a responsible global power, an effort threatened by the initial coronavirus response. “China lost stature internationally as a result of its initial downplaying of the coronavirus in the first weeks of the year,” said Steve Young, the former Director of the American Institute in Taiwan and Consul General in Hong Kong.A makeshift memorial for Li Wenliang, a doctor who issued an early warning about the coronavirus outbreak before it was officially recognized, is seen after Li died of the virus, at Central Hospital of Wuhan in Hubei province, China, Feb. 7, 2020.Young said China was widely criticized in particular for how it punished one of the first doctors to raise alarms over the outbreak, Dr. Li Wenliang, the Wuhan physician who later died from the coronavirus.Wu Qiang, a political analyst in Beijing and a critic of the government, said the authorities initial subdued response left a lasting impression as the outbreak raced beyond Wuhan.“It is hard for anyone to believe that China has played the role of a leader in the so-called coronavirus prevention in the world,” he said.Beijing’s reputational damage in the United States is obvious, where the outbreak has pushed opinions of China to record lows. The latest Gallup poll, conducted Feb. 3-16, found Americans’ favorable rating of China at the same level as those recorded after the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, when just 34% of Americans held a favorable view of the country.Joseph Cheng, a retired political scientist at the City University of Hong Kong, said the Chinese leadership is very concerned with its image because it appreciates the significance of soft power. One measure of that sensitivity was China’s recent action in ordering three Wall Street Journal reporters to leave China after the newspaper published an opinion piece describing China as the “sick man of Asia.””The leadership now wants to influence international public opinion,” he said, referring to China’s recent efforts to burnish its credentials as a responsible power by sharing expertise and equipment with countries seeing a surge in cases.China now emphasizes it has shared its treatment plan with many countries.“Specifically, we have established close technical-level communication mechanisms with organizations such as the World Health Organization, the European Union, the AU, the CARICOM, and ASEAN, and countries with high outbreaks or fragile health systems such as Korea and Iran,” Zhao Lijiang, China’s foreign ministry spokesman, told a press briefing Friday.Where did the outbreak begin?A worker in a protective suit is seen at the closed seafood market in Wuhan, Hubei province, China, Jan. 10, 2020.More than two months after Chinese health authorities first reported people becoming sick with a new pathogen, Beijing is now challenging the assumption that the virus originated in Wuhan, where it was traced to a market that was illegally selling wildlife.“Confirmed cases of #COVID19 were first found in China, but its origin is not necessarily in China,” Zhao said this week. “Where the virus originates is inconclusive.”Zhao referred to a statement by Dr. Zhong Nanshan, the most prominent epidemiologist handling this outbreak and the 2002-03 SARS outbreak, who claimed last month that “though the virus was first discovered in China, it may not have originated” there.Zhong did not offer any alternative suggestions as to where it was originated, but his words have fueled a raft of conspiracy theories online, including that the contagion might have come from the U.S.The exact origin of the virus has not been confirmed. But it is believed to have jumped from animals to humans at a market in Wuhan.David Ho, a prominent Columbia University AIDS researcher, said the coronavirus almost certainly started in China.“Given what we know of SARS, and this one, and what we know of all the coronaviruses that are found in other animal species, I have very little doubt that the origin is China,” he said in an interview with the Mandarin Service of Voice of America this week.Political system superiority  Chinese President Xi Jinping inspects the novel coronavirus prevention and control work at Anhuali Community in Beijing, Feb. 10, 2020.In addition to the effort to spin the crisis as a testament to the strength of China’s political system, Beijing is pushing a powerful counter narrative: the idea that the Chinese governing system allowed for a rapid and effective response to the crisis that other countries can learn from.Official news outlets have been flooded with stories about how the government is being praised by foreign governments and health officials.The state broadcaster CCTV reported this week that Dr. Bruce Aylward, a Canadian and assistant director-general of WHO, led the foreign experts’ visit to China. Aylward said China’s counterattack of the outbreak can be replicated, “but it will require speed, money, imagination and political courage,” the broadcaster reported.Ding Xiangyang, a central government official who is part of the team overseeing coronavirus containment in Hubei province, the epicenter of the epidemic, said the WHO believes China’s decline in cases has made the world safer.”The WHO believes that China has adopted the bravest, most flexible and most proactive prevention and control measures in history, changed the rapid spread of the epidemic, and reduced the incidence of hundreds of thousands of cases nationwide. ” Ding, the vice secretary general at the State Council, told a news briefing Friday.But as many epidemiologists consider a nascent pandemic, people doubt the drastic containment measures, including the virtual lockdown of Hubei province, home to 60 million people, could ever be repeated elsewhere.China has a ” big advantage” over the control of epidemics, said Dorothy Solinger, an expert on Chinese politics at the University of California at Irvine.”What other nation, large or small, could this pull off? Only China, with its old command apparatus plus its newer surveillance one could have done what it did,” she said. “Like it or not, China is really good at both of these.”Critics say the sad part is the human rights costs of the most severe measures imposed by China.”Let’s face it, many people sickened and died as the CCP’s propaganda organs trumpeted a false narrative. Not a sterling example of the system’s efficacy,” Young, the former director of the American Institute in Taiwan, said.And other places, such as Taiwan, have demonstrated that it may be possible to keep people safe without imposing heavy-handed interventions on millions. Taiwan, which has scores of flights from China each day, has kept the number of infected to under 50 people.Officials credit Taiwan’s proactive measures to identify arriving passengers from affected parts of China, as well as a robust public health system focused on identifying and quarantining infected people. Taiwan officials say being transparent with information is important. 
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Like many Americans, bartender Danjale Williams is worried about the growing threat of the novel coronavirus. What makes the 22-year-old in Washington even more frightened: The thought of medical bills she just can’t afford, as one of almost 27.5 million people in the United States who don’t have health insurance.”I definitely would second guess before going to the doctor, because the doctor’s bill is crazy,” she said. “If it did come down to that, I don’t have enough savings to keep me healthy.”As the virus began spreading in the west of the country, where the nation’s first death was reported on February 29, public health experts warned the US has several characteristics unique among wealthy nations that make it vulnerable.These include a large and growing population without medical insurance, the 11 million or so undocumented migrants afraid to come into contact with authorities, and a culture of “powering through” when sick for fear of losing one’s job.”These are all things that can perpetuate the spread of a virus,” said Brandon Brown, an epidemiologist at UC Riverside.The number of Americans without health insurance began falling from a high of 46.7 million in 2010 following the passage of Obamacare (the Affordable Care Act), but has risen again over the past two years.The current figure of 27.5 million is about 8.5 percent of the population.Getting through the doorPublic health experts often worry about the destructive potential of a pandemic in poorer parts of the world like sub-Saharan Africa or South Asia.These poverty-plagued regions have hospitals that are ill-equipped to stop the spread of infectious diseases, or to adequately care for patients needing breathing assistance, which the most severe cases of COVID-19 require.By contrast, the US has some of the world’s best hospitals and medical staff, but those not lucky enough to have good insurance through their employer, and not poor enough to qualify for state insurance, often opt out of the system entirely.A routine doctor’s visit can run into hundreds of dollars for those without coverage.”I think that it’s possible if this has the sustained spread, that might highlight some of those health care disparities that we already know about and are trying to work on, but haven’t figured out a way to solve,” said Brian Garibaldi, the medical director of Johns Hopkins Hospital’s biocontainment unit.That’s not to say uninsured people have no recourse if they fall seriously ill.US law requires that people who have a medical emergency can get the care they need, regardless of ability to pay.Abigail Hansmeyer, a Minnesota resident who along with her husband is uninsured, said that if she did fall ill, “we may seek out the emergency room for treatment.”But being treated doesn’t mean the visit was free and the uninsured can be lumped with huge bills after.”So we have to very carefully consider costs in every situation,” the 29-year-old said.Presentee-ismOne of the key messages the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has put out about the coronavirus is to stay home if you have mild respiratory symptoms, except to go to the doctor once you have called in and if they think you need to.”But a lot of people, depending on their jobs, their position and their privilege, are not able to do that,” said Brown.The United States is alone among advanced countries in not offering any federally mandated paid sick leave.Though private companies offer an average of eight days per year, only 30 percent of the lowest paid workers are able to earn sick days, according to the Economic Policy Institute.For many of these people, missing even a day’s work can make a painful financial dent.An October 2019 nationwide survey of 2,800 workers by the accounting firm Robert Half found that 57 percent sometimes go to work while sick and 33 percent always go when sick.Vaccine cost fearsAs the global death toll from the virus approaches 3,400 and the US braces for a wider outbreak, the race is on to develop vaccines and treatments.Current timeline estimates for the leading vaccine candidate are 12-18 months, but will it be affordable for all? That question was put to Health Secretary Alex Azar in Congress.His response: “We would want to ensure that we work to make it affordable, but we can’t control that price because we need the private sector to invest.”Ed Silverman, a columnist for industry news site Pharmalot, panned the comment as “outrageous.””No one said profits are verboten,” he wrote. “But should we let some Americans who may contract the coronavirus die because the price is out of reach?” 
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Passengers aboard a cruise ship off the California coast were instructed to stay in their cabins as they awaited test results Friday that could show whether the coronavirus is circulating among the more than 3,500 people aboard.
    
A military helicopter crew lowered test kits onto the 951-foot (290-meter) Grand Princess by rope and later retrieved them for analysis at a lab as the vessel lay at sea off San Francisco, under orders to keep its distance from shore. Princess Cruises said 45 people were selected for testing.
    
Authorities undertook the testing after a passenger on a previous voyage of the ship died of the coronavirus and at least four others became infected.
    
“The ship will not come on shore until we appropriately assess the passengers” California Gov. Gavin Newsom said.
    
Another Princess cruise ship, the Diamond Princess, was quarantined for two weeks in Yokohama, Japan, last month because of the virus, and ultimately about 700 of the 3,700 people aboard became infected in what experts pronounced a public-health failure, with the vessel essentially becoming a floating germ factory.
    
Meanwhile, the U.S. death toll from the coronavirus climbed to 14, with all but one victim in Washington state, while the number of infections swelled to over 200, scattered across 18 states.
    
Nine of the dead were from the same suburban Seattle nursing home, now under federal investigation. Families of nursing home residents voiced anger, having received conflicting information about the condition of their loved ones. One woman was told her mother had died, then got a call from a staffer who said her mother was doing well, only to find out she had, in fact, died, said Kevin Connolly, whose father-in-law is also a facility resident.
    
“This is the level of incompetence we’re dealing with,” Connolly said in front of the Life Care Center in Kirkland.
    
The investigation will determine whether the nursing home followed guidelines for preventing infections. Last April, the state fined it $67,000 over infection-control deficiencies after two flu outbreaks.
    
The coronavirus has infected around 100,000 people worldwide and killed over 3,400, the vast majority of them in China.
    
Some major businesses in the Seattle area, where researchers say the virus may have circulated undetected for weeks, have shut down some operations or urged employees to work from home. That includes Microsoft and Amazon, the two tech giants that together employ more than 100,000 people in the region.
    
King County is buying a motel for $4 million to house patients and hopes to have the first of them in place within days at the 84-room EconoLodge in Kent, about 20 miles (32 km) from Seattle. The rooms’ doors open to the outside rather than to a central hallway, reducing the likelihood of contact between patients.
    
The plan was met with resistance from local leaders, including Kent Police Chief Rafael Padilla, who called it “ill-advised and dangerous” and warned: “At any point a patient can simply walk into our community and spread the virus.”
    
Around the country, New York’s mayor implored the federal government to send more test kits to his state, which on Thursday saw its caseload double overnight to 22, all of them in or near the city. Gap closed its New York office and asked employees to work from home until further notice after learning that an employee had the virus.
   
In Rhode Island, about 200 people were quarantined because of their connections to a school trip to Italy that has so far resulted in three cases. Amid four cases in Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis said the risks remain low for most people planning trips to the state for spring break or baseball’s spring training.
    
On Wall Street, fears about the outbreak led to a sharp selloff Thursday,  with the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling 970 points, or 3.6%. The drop extended two weeks of wild swings in the market, with stocks fluctuating 2% or more for the fourth day in a row.
    
A Sacramento-area man who sailed on the Grand Princess in February later succumbed to the coronavirus. Two other passengers from that voyage have been hospitalized with the virus in Northern California, and two Canadians who recently sailed aboard the ship tested positive after returning home, officials said.
    
The ship off California was returning to San Francisco after visiting Hawaii. Some of the passengers remained on board after sailing on its previous voyage, to a string of Mexican ports.
    
Princess Cruises said that no cases of the virus had been confirmed among those still on the ship. But three dozen passengers have had flu-like symptoms over the past two weeks or so, said Mary Ellen Carroll, executive director of San Francisco’s Department of Emergency Management.
    
“Once we have results from the tests,” she said, authorities “will determine the best location for the ship to berth.”
    
Michele Smith, a Grand Princess passenger, posted video on Facebook of the helicopter that arrived at the ship. Another video showed a crew member wearing gloves and a mask and spraying and wiping a handrail.
   
 “We have crews constantly cleaning our ship,” Smith was heard saying.
    
In a post, Smith said she and her husband were not quarantined and were told that only the people who had been on the Mexico voyage or those showing flu-like symptoms had to isolate themselves.
    
“Spirits are as high as can be under these circumstances. We are blessed to be healthy, comfortable and well-fed,” she wrote.
    
But a late-night statement Thursday from the cruise line said all guests were asked to stay in their rooms while results were awaited, in keeping with guidelines from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
    
A passenger from the Mexico voyage, Judy Cadiz of Lodi, California, said she and her husband became ill afterward but did not given it much thought until learning a fellow traveler had died of the virus. Now, they cannot get a straight answer about how to get tested, she said.
    
With Mark Cadiz, 65, running a fever, the couple were worried not only about themselves but about the possibility they passed the infection on to others.
    
“They’re telling us to stay home, but nobody told me until yesterday to stay home. We were in Sacramento, we were in Martinez, we were in Oakland. We took a train home from the cruise,” Judy Cadiz said. “I really hope that we’re negative so nobody got infected.”
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