Two more people succumbed to the novel coronavirus in Washington state, officials said on Saturday, bringing the nationwide toll in the United States to 19, while the number of confirmed cases in New York rose to 89 and a cruise ship with infected passengers remained stranded outside San Francisco.
More than half of all US states have reported cases of the coronavirus, which originated in China last year and causes the sometimes deadly respiratory illness COVID-19. As the outbreak takes root, daily life has become increasingly disrupted, with concerts and conferences canceled and universities telling students to stay home and take classes online.
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Organizers of the Conservative Political Action Conference, a high-profile annual gathering that took place in Maryland last month, said on Saturday one of their attendees had tested positive for the virus after exposure prior to the event. The person had no interactions with President Donald Trump or Vice President Mike Pence, who were in attendance, the American Conservative Union said in a statement.
The two latest deaths were in Washington's King County, the hardest hit area in the United States after the virus spread among residents at a nursing facility in the Seattle suburb of Kirkland. The first deaths on the East Coast were announced late Friday, with two people succumbing in Florida.
In New York, the number of confirmed cases rose by 13 on Saturday to a statewide total of 89 people, Governor Andrew Cuomo said. He issued a declaration of emergency.
"It allows expedited purchasing and expedited hiring, which is what we need right now," Cuomo told a news conference.
Kansas, Missouri and Washington DC announced their first cases.
In international waters off California, passengers on a cruise ship that was barred from docking in San Francisco after some aboard tested positive for the virus did not know on Saturday when they might be able to step ashore.
Trump said on Friday he would prefer the Grand Princess's 2,400 passengers and 1,100 crew remain out at sea, but that he would let others decide where she should dock.
After 19 crew and two passengers out of 46 tested on the Grand Princess were found to have the virus, Pence said the ocean liner will be taken to an unspecified non-commercial port where everyone on board will be tested again, and that those "who need to be quarantined will be quarantined" and those who need medical care will receive it.
US officials also began tracking another cruise ship that may have shared crew with the Grand Princess or the Diamond Princess, another ship where the coronavirus spread onboard, Pence said.
The predicament of the Grand Princess was reminiscent of the Diamond Princess cruise liner, also owned by Carnival Corp, the world's leading cruise operator. It was quarantined off Japan in February and was for a time the largest concentration of coronavirus cases outside China.
Stephen Hahn, the commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration, told a news conference at the White House on Saturday that a total of 2.1. million coronavirus tests will have been shipped to non-public labs by Monday, as the Trump administration aims to counter criticism that its response to the disease has been sluggish.
The respiratory illness has spread to more than 90 countries, killing more than 3,400 people and infecting more than 100,000 worldwide.
Iran sees massive spike in infections
In Iran, the death toll from coronavirus reached 145 on Saturday after another 21 people were confirmed to have died during the last day, among them a conservative lawmaker from Tehran, officials and local news agencies said.
Announcing the latest deaths from the virus, a health ministry official said in a televised briefing that the tally of confirmed infections had increased by more than 1,000 during the last 24 hours, totaling 5,823 by Saturday.
Lawmaker Fatehmeh Rahbar was among those who died on Friday, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported, in another sign that the disease is spreading within state institutions.
On March 2, Tasnim reported the death of Mohammad Mirmohammadi. He was a member of the Expediency Council, an entity that resolves disputes between parliament and the Guardian Council – a hardline body responsible for vetting electoral candidates.
Deputy Health Minister Iraj Harirchi and another member of parliament, Mahmoud Sadeghi, have said they have also contracted the virus.
As authorities work to contain the outbreak, Iran's Mosque Authority postponed all gatherings and celebrations until further notice, the Mehr news agency said.
Iran is the epicenter of the outbreak in the Middle East as most of the cases reported in the region are either people who were in Iran or who caught the virus from people who had visited the country.
COVID-19 continues to subside China
China's new confirmed case count of the COVID-19 coronavirus fell by roughly one half, according to official data, as the disease continues to subside in its country of origin.
The National Health Commission on Sunday reported 44 new confirmed cases of the COVID-19 coronavirus as at the end of March 7, a decline from 99 the previous day.
The fall comes as Chinese cities gradually relax quarantine measures put in place over a month ago, while authorities keep a close watch on the virus' spread overseas.
Of the 44 new confirmed cases, 41 were discovered in Wuhan, the origin of the virus' outbreak and its hotbed.
The remaining three were cases imported from outside mainland China.
Cautious hope in South Korea
In South Korea, meanwhile, the mayor of the South Korean city hardest hit by that country's coronavirus outbreak expressed cautious hope on Sunday that the numbers of new cases may be dropping, after the rate of increase dropped to its lowest level in 10 days.
The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 93 new coronavirus cases from late Saturday through Sunday morning, for a total of 7,134 in the country.
The increase in cases was lower than the same period a day before, though health officials have warned that numbers could fluctuate as more tests are processed.
In the city of Daegu, which accounts for as much as 75% of all of South Korea's confirmed cases, mayor Kwon Young-jin told reporters that the number of new cases in the city has dropped to below 300 for the first time since Feb. 29, Yonhap news agency reported.
"The increase in the number of infection cases is showing signs of slowing down," he said, according to Yonhap.
South Korea – which has confirmed the largest number of coronavirus cases outside of China – has also faced an increasing number of travel restrictions, with more than 100 other countries imposing at least some restrictions on arrivals from South Korea.
Italy quarantines nearly quarter of the population
Italy announced a sweeping quarantine early Sunday, restricting the movements of about a quarter of its population in a bid to limit contagions and end the virus' advance at the epicenter of Europe's outbreak.
Shortly after midnight, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte signed a decree affecting about 16 million people in the country's prosperous north, including the Lombardy region and at least 14 provinces in neighboring regions. The extraordinary measures will be in place until April 3.
"For Lombardy and for the other northern provinces that I have listed there will be a ban for everybody to move in and out of these territories and also within the same territory," Conte said. "Exceptions will be allowed only for proven professional needs, exceptional cases and health issues."
Italy on Saturday saw its biggest daily increase in coronavirus cases since the outbreak began in the north of the country on Feb. 21.
In its daily update, Italy's civil protection agency said the number of people with the coronavirus rose by 1,247 in the last 24 hours, taking the total to 5,883. Another 36 people also died as a result of the virus, taking the total to 233.
There was chaos and confusion hours before Conte signed the decree, as word leaked that the government was planning the quarantine.
Packed bars and restaurants emptied quickly as people rushed to the train station in Padua's Veneto region. Travelers with suitcases, wearing face masks, gloves and carrying bottles of sanitizing gel shoved their way on to trains.
Some regional politicians also were taken aback, Stefano Bonaccini, president of the Emilia Romagna region, said parts of the decree were confusing, and he asked the premier for more time to come up with "coherent" solutions. The mayor of Asti, in the Piedmont region, posted an irate video on his Facebook page slamming Rome for not keeping regional leaders in the loop.
"Nobody told me," Maurizio Rasero screamed, adding that he had hundreds of messages on his cell phone from alarmed citizens. "It's incredible that information that is so delicate and important would come out in the newspaper first, leaking everywhere even before local authorities learn about it."
Saudi Arabia bans spectators at sporting events
Italy wasn't the only country limiting activities. Around the world, events and festivals were called off. Travel restrictions and warnings were issued. A nose-dive in tourist traffic and possible disruptions to supply chains set off fears of a worldwide economic slowdown. Benchmarks in global markets have gyrated in recent weeks, as hopes for stimulus measures mixed with widespread pessimism on the virus news.
Saudi Arabia banned spectators at any sports competitions starting Saturday. The NBA, as well as British and Japanese sports teams are considering doing the same, as baseball and soccer seasons are starting.
The spread of the virus has also taken a psychological toll. Authorities and manufacturers have been trying to assure panicking consumers they don't need to hoard toilet paper, which have vanished from store shelves in various nations.
The virus is still much less widespread than annual flu epidemics, which cause up to 5 million severe cases around the world and up to 650,000 deaths annually, according to the WHO.
Even islands in the middle of the Indian Ocean have not been spared, with the tiny archipelago nation of the Maldives reporting its first cases. Health authorities there locked down two of its tourist resorts after two expatriate workers tested positive for the coronavirus.
