A8 eZ sU THE WASHINGTON POST.SATURDAy, MARCH 7 , 2020
THE CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK
BY SUDARSAN RAGHAVAN
AND HEBA FAROUK MAHFOUZcairo — Twelve new corona -
virus cases emerged friday in
Egypt among workers on a Nile
river cruise ship popular with
foreign tourists, the World
Health organization and Egypt’s
Health ministry announced.
Among those infected during a
cruise on the vessel last month
were three travelers from mont-
gomery County, md., who were
diagnosed with the virus two
weeks after they returned from
an overseas trip, maryland Gov.
Larry Hogan confirmed friday
evening. All three are now recov-
ering from moderate flu-like
symptoms, health officials said.
I t is unclear whether the out-
break on the ship is linked to
other infections reported in the
United States and elsewhere in-
volving recent travelers to Egypt.
Eight people in the Houston
area reportedly developed covid-
19, caused by the virus, after they
returned to the United States on
feb. 20 following a Nile cruise in
Egypt. french authorities have
said several people tested posi-
tive after visiting Egypt, and at
least three cases have been con-
firmed in Canada among recent
travelers to Egypt, according to
Canadian authorities.
The Egyptian cruise ship work-
ers were tested for the virus at t he
end of its 14-day incubation peri-
od, said Egyptian health authori-
ties, which suggests the infec-
tions occurred during a cruise
between the cities of Aswan and
Luxor sometime in the third week
of february.
Authorities have not disclosed
the number and nationalities of
passengers on that cruise.Egyptian authorities were
prompted to investigate a possi-
ble outbreak involving the Nile
cruise after a Ta iwanese Ameri-
can woman who had been aboard
tested positive for the virus
feb. 28, after she returned to Ta i-
wan, the joint statement said.
Health officials said they suspect
she had spread the virus to others
on the cruise, including two un-
identified Americans.
After Egyptian authorities
were alerted to the woman’s in-
fection, 12 workers on her ship
were quarantined, and they test-
ed positive on the last day of their
isolation, officials said. other
people who had come into con-
tact with the vessel and t he work-
ers have also been quarantined,
the officials a dded, as the number
of confirmed coronavirus cases in
Egypt reached 15.
A WHo epidemiologist saidfriday that while the tests
showed the virus was present in
the workers’ bodies, none of them
evinced symptoms, suggesting
th ey had not readily passed the
virus to many others.
“We know that is possible, but
we do not believe that is a major
driver of transmission,” maria
Van Kerkhove told reporters in
Geneva. “If we look at the actual
epidemics and how these epi-
demics are unfolding, if they
were a major driver of transmis-
sion, it would have caused much
larger numbers of cases.”
The 12 workers have been
transferred to an isolation facility
in a hospital for treatment. The
cruise ship was named river A
and was towed to an area 12 miles
away from Luxor, according to
the state-owned newspaper Al-
Ahram, which cited security
sources.The vessels that cruise the Nile
range in capacity, with some car-
rying as many as 150 passengers.
The trip between Aswan and Lux-
or takes two to four nights, with
the vessels stopping along the
way for sightseeing.
The announcement of the new
cases increased the number of
confirmed infections in Egypt
fivefold. Before friday, the Arab
world’s most populous nation,
with more than 100 million peo-
ple, had declared only three c ases
since the virus surfaced last year
in China. The first, a Chinese
national, recovered. The other
two, a Canadian oil worker and
an Egyptian who had returned
from Serbia, are receiving treat-
ment.
There have been growing con-
cerns among Egyptians, on the
streets, in dinner conversation
and on social media, about a lackof official transparency. T here are
suspicious that the spread of the
coronavirus could be larger than
what the government has re-
vealed so far. Egypt has not closed
schools, halted friday prayers or
stopped other large gatherings of
people to limit the spread of the
virus.
T he coronavirus outbreak is
hitting the middle East just as
Egypt’s tourism — the country’s
biggest earner of foreign curren-
cy — i s showing signs of rebound-
ing from political upheaval and
terrorist attacks in recent years.
Cruising on the Nile has be-
come a bucket-list item for travel-
ers. many itineraries are sold out
for the coming summer season,
according to industry reports.
[email protected]steve Hendrix in Jerusalem
contributed to this report.12 Nile cruise ship workers infected; excursion linked to 3 c ases in Maryland
playing games and doing whatev-
er possible to pass the time. He
said in an email Thursday night
that his thoughts were with the
crew members who had to work
through the uncertainty.
“I cannot imagine,” he said.
“fearful of the virus and working
so hard and still having contact
with us in the form of sheets and
dishes while so much is unknown
about the virus.”
freedman, the former math
teacher, said people on the Grand
Princess on friday remained
mostly patient, if anxious, as they
tried to make the best of a grim
situation.
“People are kind of collegial in
a situation like this,” he said.
“most people are dealing with it
the best they can.”
As he sat confined in his room
on the sprawling ship, he was
mostly sanguine about what
might lie ahead as public officials
try to defuse the latest calamity
fueled by the ever-expanding
global outbreak.
“If we get it, hopefully we’re
going to survive it,” he said. “If
not, you’ve got to die of some-
thing. That’s my attitude.”
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]lenny bernstein, william booth, amy
goldstein, Jay greene, ben guarino,
alex Horton, James mcauley, rick
noack, siobhán o’grady, Hannah
Knowles, lena H. sun, reis Thebault
and scott wilson contributed to this
report.band have any symptoms or have
been tested, she said, adding that
she wants to get off the ship
before that happens because of
her “compromised” situation.
“I’m trying to stay positive,” she
said. “A nd [I] know that every-
body’s under a lot of stress.”
Wray mcClelland, who has
been on the ship since feb. 11 and
confined to his room since
Wednesday, said he and his wife
have been talking, watching TV,Kolstoe, 60, who said she has
Stage 4 neuroendocrine cancer,
said it had been “a very difficult
winter” and that the cruise was
supposed to be a much-needed
respite.
“I’ve been wanting to get away
this winter,” she said in a tele-
phone interview from her room.
Instead, Kolstoe said, she was
stuck in her room, cycling among
boredom, frustration and angst.
Neither Kolstoe nor her hus-watched “Charlie’s Angels.”
When she told a fellow passen-
ger she was out of toothpaste —
both were out on their balconies
— her neighbor offered her an
extra tube.
“Everyone’s being super nice,”
Higgins ott said.
for passenger Kari Kolstoe, the
wait meant uncertainty about
whether she would get back home
to Grand forks, N.D., in time for
cancer treatment early next week.according to a recording provid-
ed to The Washington Post. “This
is an evolving situation, and we
are doing our best to tell you what
we know in a timely manner.”
Stuart freedman, a 61-year-old
retired high school math teacher
stuck on the ship, sounded largely
resigned about what lay ahead.
freedman said he will be glad
to get tested so at l east he can find
out one way or the other about
the virus. But he was frustrated
by the president’s remarks.
“The thing I didn’t like is Presi-
dent Trump wants to keep us on
this petri dish because he doesn’t
want his numbers to spike,”
freedman said. “He cares more
about his numbers than about
us.”
As they spent friday waiting
for news of tests results and
where government officials
might send the troubled ship,
they found themselves by turns
frustrated, bored and apprehen-
sive.
Passengers were given sheets
asking about their meal choices.
Princess Cruises said in a state-
ment friday that workers would
distribute forms allowing guests
to request prescription refills,
and the cruise line offered free
Internet access and complimen-
tary phone calls. Some played
Sudoku. others played cards.
Kailee Higgins ott, 17, and her
mother, Leeann Higgins, feasted
on a large breakfast of pancakes,
bacon, eggs, pastries, fruit and
yogurt. Lunch included pasta, fa-
jitas and cream puffs. Theytion of keeping the Grand Prin-
cess at s ea and in limbo for nearly
that long.
Back onshore, coronavirus
continued its march across the
nation and the globe friday, up-
ending economies, stretching
government resources and
alarming health officials.
A t least a half-dozen additional
states — including Pennsylvania,
Kentucky, South Carolina, Ha-
waii, oklahoma and minnesota —
announced suspected cases of the
virus, meaning half of all states
are now wrestling with the out-
break. New York’s number on
friday doubled to 44. Nationally,
15 people have now died from
covid-19, the disease caused by
coronavirus, and the total num-
ber of cases eclipsed 300, accord-
ing to a tally by Johns Hopkins
University.
Globally, coronavirus cases
have now surpassed 100,000,
with the trend showing few signs
of slowing. friday prayers were
disrupted across the middle East,
as t housands of mosques were
shuttered.
New cases also surfaced across
Europe, and President Emmanu-
el macron urged french citizens
to stop visiting the elderly.
Pence’s announcement at the
White House seemed at o dds with
the wishes of President Trump,
who said during a visit friday
afternoon at the Centers for Dis-
ease Control and Prevention in
Atlanta that he would prefer to
keep passengers on the Grand
Princess for the moment.
“I don’t n eed to have the [infec-
tion] numbers double because of
one ship that wasn’t o ur fault, and
wasn’t the fault of the people on
the ship either,” h e said. “I can live
either way with it. I’d rather have
the people stay on, personally.”
But public health experts say
cruise ships are particularly dan-
gerous places during outbreaks
because of the combination of
close quarters and staff members
without the needed training and
resources.
“This is probably the least ideal
environment to try and quaran-
tine and maintain proper infec-
tion prevention measures,” said
Saskia Popescu, an epidemiolo-
gist with Honor Health, a Phoenix
hospital system.
The situation with the Grand
Princess is particularly fraught
because authorities are also rac-
ing to track down passengers who
took an earlier voyage on the ship
last month to mexico. A 71-year-
old man from that trip later died
in California from covid-19.
The 3,533 people aboard the
Grand Princess — 2,422 guests
and 1,111 crew representing 54
nationalities — l earned of the test
results and the government’s
plans for the ship only as Pence
spoke from the White House.
In a message to passengers, the
ship’s captain apologized for not
breaking the news to them about
the positive test results, saying
that “we were not given advance
notice of this announcement by
the U.S. federal government.”
The captain said the CDC was
discussing individual results with
the ship’s doctor and that the
California Department of Public
Health had asked everyone to
remain isolated in their rooms,
VIrus from A
Fears rise that virus may be spreading rapidly aboard ship
cHIef masTer sgT. seTH Zweben/calIfornIa naTIonal gUard/assocIaTed Press
California National Guard medical personnel and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention workers confer Thursday aboard the Grand Princess off t he san Francisco coast
after delivering coronavirus test kits. Vice President Pence said the vessel, carrying more than 3,500 people, would move to a “non-commercial” port this weekend.robyn becK/agence france-Presse/geTTy Images
Customers at a Costco in Burbank, Calif., wait Friday to buy supplies amid worry that the coronavirus
outbreak will spread and force people to stay at home. Total infections nationwide have surpassed 3 00.S0129-6x1.RetropolisStories of the past, rediscovered.washingtonpost.com/retropolis