NEW YORK/LOS ANGELES • Twenty-one people aboard a cruise ship that was barred from docking in San Francisco have tested positive for the coronavirus, officials in the United States said on Friday, as eight more states reported their first cases of the fast-spreading respiratory disease.
US Vice-President Mike Pence, who is running the White House's response to the outbreak, said at a news conference that 19 crew members and two passengers out of 46 people tested so far on the Grand Princess ship had the virus. He said the vessel, with about 3,500 passengers and crew, would be taken to a non-commercial port where everyone on board would be tested.
US President Donald Trump said he would rather have the passengers remain on board the vessel, but that he would let others make the decision on whether to let them disembark.
"I'd rather have them stay on, personally, but I fully understand if they want to take them off," he told reporters after touring the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.
Keeping passengers quarantined aboard a coronavirus-hit ship proved to be a disastrous strategy in Japan, leading to one of the world's biggest outbreaks.
Mr Trump earlier signed a Bill that will provide US$8.3 billion (S$11.4 billion) to boost the nation's capacity to test for the virus and fund measures to stem an outbreak that has now killed 17 in the US.
On Friday, eight states - Pennsylvania, Indiana, Minnesota, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Nebraska, South Carolina and Hawaii - reported their first cases, meaning more than half of the 50 US states now have the virus.
The new cases capped a week during which the virus began to disrupt daily life for many Americans.
In Seattle, the epicentre of the nation's outbreak, there were school closures and orders to work from home. In Miami and Baltimore, areas less affected, music festivals and sporting events were cancelled or curtailed as a precaution.
In the most high-profile cancellation, the South by Southwest music and tech festival in Austin, Texas, was called off on Friday.
The University of Washington announced on the same day that all classes would be held virtually for the rest of the winter term.
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19
Number of crew members of the Grand Princess who tested positive for the virus.
2
Number of infected passengers so far.
3,500
Number of passengers and crew on the vessel, which was barred from docking in San Francisco.
Apple has asked staff at its Silicon Valley headquarters to work from home if possible as a "precaution".
Gap closed its New York headquarters because one employee had tested positive.
As stocks plunge and US companies grapple with the economic fallout, the Trump administration is also weighing tax relief for the deeply affected cruise, travel and airline industries, according to a source familiar with the plan.
Americans are sharply divided over the dangers of the virus, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll.
Critics of Mr Trump, including Democratic lawmakers, have accused the President of downplaying the significance of the outbreak for political reasons. He has said that the risk to Americans is low.
Washington's King County has been the hardest hit area in the US with at least a dozen of the nation's 17 coronavirus deaths, several of whom were people living at a nursing facility in the Seattle suburb of Kirkland. Officials said a team of 30 medical professionals from the US Public Health Service would be deployed to help the beleaguered Life Care nursing home.
"We are grateful that the cavalry is arriving," King County executive Dow Constantine said.
REUTERS
