Coronavirus: California declares a state of emergency
Following the state’s first coronavirus death, bringing the death toll in the US up to 11, California has declared a state of emergency
A 71-year-old man who had been onboard a cruise ship has died, officials haves confirmed. The ship, the Grand Princess, which, like the Diamond Princess cruise ship that was quarantined in Yokohama, Japan, is operated by Carnival, is being held off the coast of California. The vessel was making a round trip from San Francisco to Mexico last month and a round trip to Hawaii after that. Around 62 of the passengers that were onboard both trips have been restricted to their rooms for testing.
There have now been over 150 confirmed cases of Covid-19 across 16 states of the US.
Elsewhere, South Korea, the worst-hit country outside of China, has announced a ban on face mask exports as it scrambles to handle the spread of the virus; Australia has banned entry for all foreign nationals from South Korea; and while Germany reports 182 additional cases of the virus and Iran reports 591 new cases, South Africa confirms its first case, Palestine reports its first two cases and Switzerland witnesses its first death – that of a woman who had been hospitalised since 3 March.
At the time of writing there have been over 95,000 confirmed Covid-19 cases worldwide, over 3,200 deaths and over 53,400 recoveries.