Grand Princess cruise ship to dock in Oakland; Virginia announces second case

On the West Coast, the coronavirus-stricken Grand Princess cruise ship is scheduled to dock in Oakland, California, sometime Monday after idling for days off the coast of San Francisco while officials debated where to send the roughly 3,500 people aboard.

In China, where the outbreak has begun to subside, a hotel in the country's southeast that served as a quarantine facility for 71 people collapsed late Saturday, killing at least 10 people and trapping scores in the rubble.

Latin America recorded its first death in the outbreak when an Argentine man with underlying health conditions died Saturday in Buenos Aires. The man tested positive for covid-19 after returning from a European trip.

To contain coronavirus, Italy will limit movement across much of its northern region, including the cities of Milan and Venice. The measures, the most drastic outside of China, place significant restrictions on 16 million people in a broad area that is Italy's economic engine.

Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, tweeted that Grand Princess passengers were expected to be quarantined at the Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio. The base has been a quarantine site for evacuees from the coronavirus epicenter in Wuhan, China, and others exposed to the virus aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship last month.

Hours after announcing the District of Columbia's first coronavirus case, the D.C. Department of Health said early Sunday morning it was investigating whether members of a Georgetown church were exposed to the deadly virus.

Chinese authorities announced 44 new cases of coronavirus on Saturday - a smaller daily rise than countries like South Korea - as cases continue to taper off sharply in the country where the epidemic first broke out.

An attendee at the Conservative Political Action Conference - a major annual gathering held in Maryland in February and attended by President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence - tested positive Saturday for the virus, the host organization said, as the U.S. death toll rose to 19.

A Florida presidential forum hosted by the nation's largest federation of unions became the latest gathering to be canceled over coronavirus fears.

Saudi Arabia suspended travel to and from a key eastern province and ordered businesses and government offices there closed after confirming four new cases of the novel coronavirus on Sunday, bringing the total number of infections to 11.

Authorities temporarily restricted traffic in and out of Qatif province, state media reported, quoting an official at the Interior Ministry. The official told the Saudi Press Agency that the measures were being taken to "prevent the spread of the virus" after all 11 cases were detected in Qatif. The region has a majority-Shiite population, and some of the first cases appeared in residents who recently had traveled to Iran, the epicenter of a wider outbreak across the Middle East. Qatif also has been the site of political and sectarian unrest against Saudi Arabia's Sunni rulers.

Authorities said Sunday Qatif residents would be allowed to return home but all businesses and government departments in the province should be closed, with the exception of "basic facilities to provide security … (and) supply necessary services." A resident of Qatif said roads out of the province already had been blocked. Authorities in a text message sent to teachers announced classes would be suspended for two weeks, according to a resident.

Trump on Sunday continued to defend his administration's efforts to contain the coronavirus outbreak in the nation, even as infections emerge in more states.

The White House has a "fine-tuned plan" against the spread of the novel coronavirus, Trump tweeted Sunday morning.

"We moved very early to close borders to certain areas, which was a Godsend," he wrote, praising Pence - the administration's point person on the response to the outbreak - for his efforts against the virus. "The Fake News Media is doing everything possible to make us look bad. Sad!"

The president's tweet came shortly after Virginia officials announced a second presumptive case Sunday morning, just a day after reporting its first case. Washington also announced its first two confirmed cases Saturday night. Trump was criticized Friday for remarks in which he appeared to discredit medical professionals standing next to him and rebuffed accusations that the administration has been slow in distributing coronavirus testing kits.

Hong Kong's Hospital Authority said Sunday evening that a 76-year-old woman died, marking the third coronavirus fatality in the semiautonomous city, as a government adviser warned the epidemic may flare up again at the end of the year.

The total number of confirmed cases in Hong Kong rose to 113 on Sunday as authorities confirmed four more infections, including a man who contracted the virus while traveling in Mumbai, officials said.

Fifty-eight people have so far recovered and been discharged, the Hospital Authority added.

Hong Kong, adjacent to mainland China and one of the hardest-hit centers during the 2003 Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak, has enacted some of the most stringent response measures in the world, including widespread school closures.

But a leading microbiologist who advises city officials warned cases might return in the winter as the virus spreads around the world from China and back. University of Hong Kong professor Yuen Kowk-yung said in a television interview Sunday, "we think the epidemic will not come to an end" by late 2020.

"There will be what we called reverse import cases," Yuen said, according to the South China Morning Post. "In the beginning other countries feared us, now we fear them."

To prevent the contagion from being brought back to the Asian travel hub, Hong Kong has enacted mandatory 14-day quarantines for travelers arriving from Iran and some parts of South Korea and Italy.

Mainland China is enforcing similar quarantine measures as its number of cases brought in from abroad soar, reaching 63 as of Saturday.

The World Health Organization is praising Italy for its "genuine sacrifices" after the country announced it would greatly restrict movement across its northern regions to contain its coronavirus outbreak.

"The government & the people of Italy are taking bold, courageous steps aimed at slowing the spread of the #coronavirus & protecting their country & world," WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a tweet on Sunday.

Italy overnight announced it would lock down three broad sections of the north, encompassing 85 percent of the country's total coronavirus cases. As of Sunday afternoon, there was still plenty of confusion about how the measures would be carried out or enforced.

Planes and trains were still running - with flights departing for international destinations from Milan and Venice - and it was unclear whether there was tighter screening for people getting on board. One government official in Rome, whose office was involved in the new decree, said dealing with the outgoing trains and planes was a "problem."

Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, in his middle-of-the-night news conference, said people were allowed to leave the restricted zones only for emergencies, health issues or urgent work matters. "Not everything will stop," Conte said. "But from now on, we need to adopt the viewpoint that there are rules that need to be respected."

In a morning press briefing, the governor of the northern Veneto region, Luca Zaia, said he was unsure whether the decree had yet come officially into force. Zaia said his region was opposed to the new measures, and he had written to Conte requesting them to be repealed. "We all know laws are not precise to an inch," Zaia said. "But a decree this important should have gotten rid of some doubts that we want to clarify and deal with." 

Iran on Sunday reported 49 deaths and more than 700 cases of the new coronavirus over the past 24 hours, as authorities urged citizens to stay home and avoid travel between cities.

The new cases bring the official death toll in Iran to 194, with a total of 6,566 infections, according to the Health Ministry.

The outbreak is one of the largest outside China, where it is believed the virus originated.

A number of Iranian officials have contracted the virus - which causes the respiratory disease known as covid-19 - and several have died from infection.

Also Sunday, Iran's flagship carrier IranAir suspended flights to Europe because of "restrictions" placed on the airline, state media reported, citing Iran's Civil Aviation Organization.

The prime minister of the Czech Republic Sunday said Italy should bar all its citizens from traveling to other countries in Europe to contain the coronavirus.

"Italy should ban all its citizens from traveling to Europe, because we are not able to order such a thing within Schengen," Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis told Czech Television Sunday.

"Schengen" is shorthand for the 26 countries in Europe where 420 million citizens of the member-states can travel freely across each other's borders without passport control. Most Schengen countries are members of the European Union, but the free travel area also includes non-EU members Iceland, Norway and Switzerland.

Italy's Conte early Sunday announced his country was locking down a vast swath of its north, including all of the populous Lombardy region, with restrictions on movement applying to roughly 16 million people.

The Washington Post reported the Italian measures would mark the most significant coronavirus restrictions taken anywhere outside of China. It essentially would paralyze the most prosperous parts of Italy - from Venice to the economic capital of Milan - in an attempt to contain the virus.

The governor of Italy's northern Piedmont region, Alberto Cirio, has tested positive for coronavirus, the ANSA news agency reported Sunday morning.

Cirio, 47, a member of the center-right Forza Italia party, is the second regional Italian leader in two days to contract the virus.

ANSA said Cirio's condition is "OK" and he will continue to stay on the job, "inevitably at a distance."

Cirio's Piedmont region has roughly 200 cases, and several parts of the region were put under lockdown early Sunday morning amid a government decree restricting travel across parts of the north.

Until this weekend, there had been relatively few high-profile cases in Italy, even as the virus spread rapidly across the country and infected nearly 6,000 people. But on Saturday, the leader of the country's center-left party, Nicola Zingaretti, said that he had contracted the disease and was in isolation at home.

Zingaretti is also governor of the Lazio region, which includes Rome.

Britain's Finance Minister Rishi Sunak said Sunday that the government stands ready to give the National Health Service "whatever it needs" to fund its battle against the coronavirus contagion.

In his first broadcast interview, the newly appointed chancellor told Sky News that not only would the government boost funding for the NHS but was prepared to help out businesses that find themselves struggling.

"I'm working hard with the team to make sure that we have the interventions required to help anyone through a difficult period," Sunak said.

"First and foremost, supporting public services but also helping vulnerable people and also businesses to get through anything that might be coming our way," he said. "We stand ready to give the NHS whatever it needs."

Sunak, who controls the state budget, said the he was preparing to soon issue a plan for helping businesses facing "cash flow" problems due to coronavirus.

Britain has 209 confirmed cases, and has seen two deaths caused by the novel virus. Epidemiologists say Britain will likely see 1,500 by the end of the week.

A coronavirus patient in Argentina died Saturday, the country's health officials said, marking Latin America's first fatality in the outbreak.

The patient was a 64-year-old man with underlying health conditions, including diabetes, high blood pressure, chronic bronchitis and kidney failure, the Argentine Health Ministry said in a statement.

He had recently traveled to Europe and fell ill with a fever, cough and sore throat in Buenos Aires, where he lived.

He was admitted to an intensive care unit on March 3 and placed on a ventilator, according to the ministry.

Officials said they were tracing the man's close contacts to see who else may have been exposed.

At least 10 people staying in a hotel during quarantine have died in southeast China after the building collapsed Saturday evening, trapping 71 people, Chinese state media reported.

As of 4 p.m. Sunday, 48 people, including the 10 dead, have been pulled out from the Xinjia Hotel in Quanzhou, Fujian province. Search operations are ongoing for those remaining. Photos from the scene showed firefighters pulling people, including young children, from piles of rubble.

Many local Chinese governments have requisitioned hotels to house workers who return from other cities and provinces after the Lunar New Year holiday. After a 14-day quarantine, they are allowed to resume work.

The collapse appeared to have occurred during renovations on Saturday at the seven-story building, the official Xinhua News Agency reported, citing Quanzhou housing and construction bureau official Zhang Yi. It's not clear why the hotel was being renovated while it was serving as a quarantine facility. The hotel had 66 rooms on top of a lobby that was being worked on, Zhang said.

Zhang said construction workers reported to the building owner that a pillar on the first floor was noticeably bent less than five minutes before the entire structure crumbled. The building owner, who police have identified as a Quanzhou man surnamed Yang, is currently in custody, Xinhua reported.

Although construction and safety standards have improved in recent years, China is still often plagued by building collapses and industrial accidents.

Bahrain announced Sunday it will be holding its Formula 1 event for "participants only" because of the continuing global spread of the coronavirus.

The event, the first Formula 1 race to be held in the Middle East starting in 2004, is the premier international sporting event for this tiny island kingdom in the Persian Gulf.

"Given the continued spread of Covid-19 globally, convening a major sporting event, which is open to the public and allows thousands of international travelers and local fans to interact in close proximity would not be the right thing to do at the present time," said the statement by the Bahrain International Circuit, carried by the official news agency.

The March 22 event will still be televised.

Bahrain has reported 85 cases of covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, with most being traced back to neighboring Iran, which with more than 5,000 cases has one of the world's worst outbreaks.

The Ministry of Health on Saturday asked all travelers from Italy, South Korea, Egypt and Lebanon to quarantine themselves for two weeks from the day of their arrival. Any Bahrain citizens or foreign residents who have recently visited these countries should contact the government to schedule a medical exam and avoid contact with others.

Saudi Arabia meanwhile closed its land borders to all but commercial traffic. Arrivals to the country can now only come in through one of three airports.

In the United Arab Emirates, 15 new cases were reported over the weekend, taking the total to 45, including two students. Schools are closed for the next month, and the government of this international travel hub has cautioned against all international travel.

Cultural and sporting events across the region have also been canceled.