The drive-in, relic of yesterday, finds itself suited to now

Viewers in parked cars watch the animated film "Onward" at the Paramount Drive-In Theatres, Thursday, March 19, 2020, in Paramount, Calif. The drive-in theater, long a dwindling nostalgia act in a multiplex world, is experiencing a momentary return to prominence. With nearly all of the nation’s movie theaters shuttered due to the pandemic, some drive-in owners think they’re in a unique position to give moviegoers a chance to do something out of the house but stay within prudent distance from one another. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

NEW YORK (AP) — The drive-in theater, long a dwindling nostalgia act in a multiplex world, is experiencing a momentary return to prominence.

With nearly all of the nation’s movie theaters shuttered due to the coronavirus pandemic, some drive-in owners think they’re in a unique position to give moviegoers a chance to do something out of the house while keeping distance from others. This weekend, some drive-ins aren’t the only show in town. They’re the only show in the country.

The Showboat Drive-In Theater in Hockley, Texas, about a 30-minute drive outside Houston, normally sees ticket sales go down about 40% on a weekend when they don’t have any new movies. Last weekend, they saw a 40% increase, says the theater’s owner, Andrew Thomas. Usually open weekends, Thomas has kept screenings going through the week.


“Obviously this isn’t the way you’d want it to occur, but I’m excited for the idea that there may be a new generation of people that will get to experience going to a drive-in theater and — I was going to say catch the bug,” said Thomas, laughing. “Maybe some other turn of phrase.”

There are just over 300 drive-ins left in the country. They constitute a small, oft-forgotten flicker in today’s movie ecosystem that hardly competes with the megawatt glare of the megaplex and the nation’s 5,500 indoor theaters. But through decades of disruption and change in American life, they have managed to survive. They’ve somehow clung to life as relics of past Americana only to find themselves, for a brief moment anyway, uniquely suited to today

Not many drive-ins are open. It’s a seasonal business to begin with, with many drive-ins not planning to open until April. John Vincent, president of the United Drive-in Theater Owner Association, estimates about 5-10% were open as of last weekend, and some of those are closing due to the pandemic. In states like California and New York, restrictions on movement and gathering are being ramped up that mandate closures. As infections rise in other parts of the country, Vincent suspects the drive-in’s window is already closing.

“We’d love the drive-ins to shine but this is probably not the moment,” said Vincent, who owns Wellfleet Cinemas on Cape Cod.

However long it lasts, the drive-in is for now, in certain parts of the country, one of the only remaining refuges of public entertainment — of getting out the house to do something while still staying inside your car. At the Paramount Drive-in near Los Angeles, Forrest and Erin McBride figured a drive-in movie was one of the only ways they could responsibly celebrate their anniversary.


“We were like, what can we do? Everything’s closed,” said Forrest before a showing of “Onward” on Thursday night. “We were like, ‘Well, a drive-in theater is kind of like a self-quarantined movie date.’”

Aman Patel, a 25-year-old from Los Angeles, attended his first drive-in with his roommate and friends. “I always wanted to do it,” said Patel.

Drive-ins aren’t without their own virus concerns. Concessions and restrooms, in particular, still pose issues. All owners interviewed for this article said they were spacing out cars, reworking how customers could order food (sometimes via text messages) and limiting restroom occupancy.

Chris Curtis, owner of the Blue Moon Drive-in in Guin, Alabama, said he was doing something that has long been anathema to drive-ins: allowing outside food and drink in. “In fact, we suggest it,” reads the Blue Moon’s Facebook page. Like indoor theaters, drive-ins make their money almost entirely by concessions.

“We’re just trying to pay the power bill and the water bill and get through this, and give the community something to do at a time when there’s not a whole lot to do,” said Curtis, who’s owned the Blue Moon for 24 years. “It’s not about the movies anymore. It’s about having something to do.”

Curtis is concerned that too many people could show up this weekend, given the responses he’s gotten. To keep the Blue Moon uncrowded, Curtis launched online ticketing for the first time. “I don’t want people driving from long distances just to see that we’re sold out,” he said.

There are few movies left for drive-ins to play. For now, they can still screen recent releases like “Onward” and “The Hunt,” but those movies are already available on various digital platforms as studios have funneled their films to homes due to the virus. Earlier this week, all of the nation’s movie chains shuttered following federal guidelines that urged against gatherings of more than 10 people. The studios have cleared out their release calendars into May.

Those postponements have extended all the way to major summer releases, including Marvel’s “Black Widow” (previously slated for May 1). Eating into spring releases will be hard enough for drive-ins, but summer is when they sell most of their tickets. Owners say that if they manage to remain open in the coming weeks, they could potentially play older films (though those cost almost as much as new releases to play).

“We don’t know how long we’re going to have to live this way,” said Thomas. “Everybody’s wrestling with what it is going to be like in the middle of the summer when normally everyone is high-fiving and having a good time because the box office is going crazy. It’s when you go: This is why I got into this business.”

Drive-ins could also improvise in other ways. Lisa Boaz, who with her husband has operated the Monetta Drive-in in Monetta, South Carolina, since 1999, said they’ve been contacted by churches interested in using the drive-in for Sunday services. Parishioners would listen to sermons from their cars through the drive-in’s FM-radio transmitters.

“We’re kind of playing it by ear right now,” said Boaz.

Boaz said they had opened the Monetta earlier in March, hopeful for a good year. They have stacks of souvenir cups with “2020 season” printed on them. She’s not sure how long the Monetta will stay open, and — like other owners — said she would be quick to follow any state-ordered shelter-in-place guidelines. Deciding just to open this weekend, she said, was difficult. And she’s worried that other drive-ins won’t be able to withstand a few dark months.

But so long as it’s safe, Boaz appreciates the irony that in the year 2020, the best — and in many cases only — way to see a movie outside the house is at the drive-in. The pandemic hasn’t proven the supremacy of streaming as much as it’s shown how indomitable the urge is to spend a night at the movies.

“It is kind of nice that we’re getting a little bit of extra attention. Maybe people don’t want to stay inside as much as they thought they did,” said Boaz. “The old ways are the best ways.”

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Associated Press Television News Producer Marcela Isaza contributed to this report from Los Angeles

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Viewers in a parked car watch the animated film "Onward" at the Paramount Drive-In Theatres, Thursday, March 19, 2020, in Paramount, Calif. The drive-in theater, long a dwindling nostalgia act in a multiplex world, is experiencing a momentary return to prominence. With nearly all of the nation’s movie theaters shuttered due to the pandemic, some drive-in owners think they’re in a unique position to give moviegoers a chance to do something out of the house but stay within prudent distance from one another. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Andrea Wyatt of Inglewood, Calif., wears a mask as she collects her concessions at the Paramount Drive-In Theatres, Thursday, March 19, 2020, in Paramount, Calif. The drive-in theater, long a dwindling nostalgia act in a multiplex world, is experiencing a momentary return to prominence. With nearly all of the nation’s movie theaters shuttered due to the pandemic, some drive-in owners think they’re in a unique position to give moviegoers a chance to do something out of the house but stay within prudent distance from one another. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

A movie screen at the Paramount Drive-In Theatres is reflected in rainwater before opening, Thursday, March 19, 2020, in Paramount, Calif. The theatre was scheduled to shut down Friday after California Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a statewide stay-at-home order due to the coronavirus. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

FILE - In this July 26, 2013 file photo, patrons watch a movie as the sun sets over Bengies Drive-In Theatre in Middle River, Md. The drive-in theater, long a dwindling nostalgia act in a multiplex world, is experiencing a momentary return to prominence. With nearly all of the nation’s movie theaters shuttered due to the pandemic, some drive-ins are the only show in town. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)

FILE - In this June 26, 2014, file photo, movie-goers watch "How to Train Your Dragon 2," at the Saco Drive-In in Saco, Maine. The drive-in theater, long a dwindling nostalgia act in a multiplex world, is experiencing a momentary return to prominence. With nearly all of the nation’s movie theaters shuttered due to the pandemic, some drive-ins are the only show in town. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, File)

One Southern California drive-in movie theater this week became the perfect spot for "a self-quarantined movie date." But after strict "safer at home" restrictions went into effect across the state, the Paramount Drive In Theater is now closed. (March 20)

USA

Returning troops denied water, bathrooms under quarantine

This photo provided by the U.S. Army shows large tents The 82nd Airborne Division has established to provide accommodations for up to 600 soldiers, shown March 17, 2020 at Fort Bragg, N.C. In one of Bragg's remote training areas, large tents have popped up over the last few days to house hundreds of 82nd Airborne Division troops that are returning to the base from Afghanistan and other Middle East deployments. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. 1st Class Zach VanDyke via AP)


WASHINGTON (AP) — It wasn’t the welcome home that U.S. soldiers expected when they returned from war zones in the Middle East in the past week.

When their planes landed at Fort Bliss, Texas, they were herded into buses, denied water and the use of bathrooms, then quarantined in packed barracks, with little food or access to the outdoors. “This is no way to treat Soldiers returning from war,” one soldier told The Associated Press in an email.

The soldiers posted notes on social media about the poor conditions. Their complaints got quick attention from senior Army and Pentagon leaders. Now changes are under way at Fort Bliss and at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, where the first soldiers placed under quarantine also complained of poor, cramped conditions.

Quarantining troops on military bases is becoming a greater challenge for military officials. While continuing missions and training, they also have to try to prevent the spread of the highly contagious coronavirus by enforcing two-week quarantines of soldiers who have spent months overseas.

In one of Bragg’s remote training areas, large white tents have popped up over the past few days to house hundreds of 82nd Airborne Division troops returning to the base from Afghanistan and Middle East deployments. The tent city, being called Forward Operating Base Patriot (FOB Patriot), materialized almost overnight, after commanders realized the limits of the barracks when troops began arriving on Saturday.

Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy said senior leaders were looking into soldiers’ complaints and seeking answers from Fort Bliss. Pentagon chief spokesman Jonathan Hoffman told reporters that Defense Secretary Mark Esper had heard about the problems and “his response is, we can do better and we need to do better.”

Hoffman said the commander at Fort Bliss has met with all of the quarantined soldiers and “talked through some of their concerns. The spokesman added, “We are going to do better. This is something unusual for all these bases to be handling, and they are doing the best they can.”

In the early days of the quarantine, soldiers at Fort Bliss posted photos on social media showing foam food trays dotted with small piles of peas and rice. On Thursday, in an email statement, Fort Bliss described changes that have been made.

“The dining facility we initially used could not keep pace with demand,” said the statement. “The portions were inadequate, and led to our number one complaint. Fort Bliss leaders saw photos and immediately took action.”

One soldier, in an email to the AP, said when soldiers got off the plane from Afghanistan, they were loaded onto buses and did not get water or permission to use the bathroom for hours.

“We can’t walk down the hall, go outside, or exercise. We finally received drinking water at 0900 this morning,” said the soldier, describing Day Two. “The Army was not prepared, nor equipped to deal with this quarantine instruction and it has been implemented very poorly. ”

The AP is not identifying soldiers who described the conditions, in order to protect their identity so they could speak freely and not worry about potential reprisals.

Fort Bliss said that the food service plan has already increased to give troops three hot meals a day and that soldiers are now getting donated snacks and are allowed to order food and have it delivered to a central location. The troops are also allowed to go outside more and will get more access to gym equipment.

Another soldier at Bliss, who had been deployed to Kuwait, said in a message that the food has gotten better and troops are now allowed to go outside more. But as they begin Day Six there, packages have been held up and there has been no access to laundry facilities.

At Fort Bragg, some of the first soldiers to return on Saturday were sent to rooms in barracks that had been quickly emptied. Soldiers previously living in those rooms were moved to make room. 

According to officials, soldiers are being separated into groups that returned from overseas together for the two-week quarantine. But realizing the need for more space, the 82nd Airborne decided on Saturday to build a new facility, and on Monday morning the first tent stakes were being pounded into the ground.

Because the area has been used for training in the past, workers were able to quickly bring in and hook up shower and toilet trailers and set up food tents and other facilities. By Thursday, several hundred troops had already moved in.

The 82nd Airborne’s 3rd Brigade has been deployed to Afghanistan, and is steadily returning home. Members of the 1st Brigade had gone to Kuwait and Iraq to help bolster security due to threats from Iranian-backed militias. Some members of that group have also come home.

According to Army Lt. Col. Mike Burns, a spokesman for the 82nd Airborne, FOB Patriot will be able to hold as many as 600 soldiers, but numbers have been changing as adjustments are made. He said Maj. Gen. James Mingus wanted to ensure that the returning troops knew “we were proud of what they accomplished and were doing everything we can to take care of them and stop the spread of the virus.”

Of the 1,700 82nd Airborne troops that have returned so far to Bragg, a bit less than half are housed in barracks and at FOB Patriot, and the rest are in quarantine in their homes. As of Friday about 200 were at FOB Patriot.

Anyone who exhibits symptoms of the virus will go into isolation and medical treatment.

For most people, the new coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia. The vast majority of people recover from the new virus. According to the World Health Organization, people with mild illness recover in about two weeks, while those with more severe illness may take three weeks to six weeks to recover.

Imports of medical supplies plummet as demand in US soars

FILE - In this March 17, 2020, file photo, a traveler uses hand sanitizer from a dispenser at Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix. The Associated Press has found that the critical shortage of testing swabs, protective masks, surgical gowns and hand sanitizer can be tied to a sudden drop in imports of medical supplies. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

The critical shortage of medical supplies across the U.S., including testing swabs, protective masks, surgical gowns and hand sanitizer, can be tied to a sudden drop in imports, mostly from China, The Associated Press has found.

Trade data shows the decline in shipments started in mid-February after the spiraling coronavirus outbreak in China led the country to shutter factories and disrupted ports. Some emergency rooms, hospitals and clinics in the U.S. have now run out of key medical supplies, while others are rationing personal protective equipment like gloves and masks.

The United States counts on receiving the vast majority of its medical supplies from China, where the coronavirus has infected more than 80,000 people and killed more than 3,200. When Chinese medical supply factories began coming back on line last month, their first priority was their own hospitals.


The government required makers of N95 masks to sell all or part of their production internally instead of shipping masks to the U.S.

The most recent delivery of medical-grade N95 masks arrived from China about a month ago, on Feb. 19. And as few as 13 shipments of non-medical N95 masks have arrived in the past month — half as many as arrived the same month last year. N95 masks are used in industrial settings, as well as hospitals, and filter out 95% of all airborne particles, including ones too tiny to be blocked by regular masks.

Governors across the country are becoming panicked as states run out of equipment. President Donald Trump has urged them to buy masks on the open market, but few if any are available.

“Without adequate protection, more of our hospital staff could become ill, which would mean there wouldn’t be people to care for patients,” said Nancy Foster, the American Hospital Association’s vice president of quality and patient safety policy.

Some hospitals are down to just a day or two of personal protective equipment, she said.

The AP found that in the past month, hand sanitizer and swab imports both dropped by 40%, N95 mask imports were down 55%, and surgical gowns, typically sourced from China, were at near normal levels because the sourcing was shifted to Honduras.

Typically, medical supplies are delivered along both coasts. But almost all the supplies that did arrive in the past month came into Newark, New Jersey, across the country from the earliest and most severe coronavirus outbreaks.

The AP identified the falling imports by looking at shipment data maintained by ImportGenius and Panjiva Inc., services that independently track global trade.

In mid-February, the World Health Organization warned that global demand for safety gear for medical providers was 100 times higher than normal. Prices were 20 times higher, stockpiles were depleted and there was a four- to six-month backlog. Despite this, federal contracting data shows there was no big effort at that point to submit orders.

Trade policies haven’t helped. Tariffs on medical supplies made them more expensive, and they were only lifted March 5, even though health care associations asked the administration last year to exempt items like masks, gloves and gowns. And now countries including South Korea, India and Taiwan are blocking exports of medical supplies to save them for their own citizens, leaving the U.S. with fewer options.

“The lag time could be weeks. It could be upward of months,” said Khatereh Calleja, CEO of the Healthcare Supply Chain Association.

Doctors, nurses and first responders in the U.S. are resorting to spraying their masks with bleach at the end of each day and hanging them up at home to dry to use for another day, according to the American College of Emergency Physicians.

“There is a little bit of anxiety, as you can imagine, going to work and not knowing if you will have enough personal protective equipment,” said Dr. David Tan, president of the National Association of EMS Physicians.

The decline in swabs included multiple varieties, not just ones needed to test for COVID-19. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has for weeks warned state and local health departments about shortages of swabs, which are needed for the testing that is critical to containing the pandemic.

Even over-the-counter medical shipments are decreasing. Ten shipping containers filled with medical thermometers arrived at U.S. ports a year ago this month. But in the last 30 days, there were just five.

Hand sanitizer, also commonly sourced from China, has disappeared from U.S. stores, and it may stay scarce. Last year by this time, 223 shipments had arrived. This year, since January, just 157 shipments have come.

The shortages affect patients because they can’t get tested and their providers may be carrying the virus from one person to the next. But the far greater risk is to medical personnel: Already, there are reports of dozens of doctors, nurses and medical staff who have contracted the virus.


Nurses across the country report that they are not receiving the proper personal protective equipment and their hospitals don’t have the isolation rooms they need to safely care for COVID-19 patients, according to National Nurses United, the largest union of registered nurses in the U.S.

“It’s not safe at all. Nobody is safe,” said Consuelo Vargas, an emergency room nurse at Cook County Hospital in Chicago. On Friday morning, after a possible exposure at work, she went to a local hardware store and bought all the painter booties and jumpsuits they had to wear while caring for people.

“It’s so frustrating because we feel like health care workers are being asked for a lot — and that’s fine, we can do our job. We’re just asking for the equipment we need,” she said.

The shortage doesn’t affect only health care. The humanitarian medical firm Direct Relief thought it was heading into 2020 well-stocked, with several million N95 masks. The organization had increased its orders in 2019 after massive wildfires in the West filled cities with smoke, squeezing its supplies in recent years.

But then bushfires overwhelmed Australia with smoky skies and so Direct Relief began sending the masks there, vice president Tony Morain said.

When the coronavirus hit China, the organization began shipping the masks to Wuhan — the outbreak’s epicenter — in an effort to contain the disease.

Morain said they’ve ordered 2 million more masks and are awaiting the shipments. Those typically take at least five weeks to arrive: two weeks to make the masks, two weeks of shipping and a week to get through the port. Meanwhile, he said, Direct Relief has received well over 100 requests from hospitals and health centers down to their last boxes.

In an effort to fill the gap, Minnesota-based 3M is running its Aberdeen, South Dakota, plant around the clock, producing millions of N95 masks per month. The company is also ramping up production of surgical masks and commercial cleaning solutions, CEO Mike Roman said.

Nonetheless, one federal contract with 3M for $4.8 million of N95 masks dated March 12 says the masks will be delivered April 30 — seven weeks later, according to public contract data.

A number of Chinese companies told the AP this week that they will be resuming exports — which bring higher prices — but that they are overwhelmed and can’t meet demand.

“Chinese mask manufacturers have received too many orders from abroad, but have no time to produce all of them and make a delivery,” said David Peng, manager of Ningbo Buy Best International Trading Co. Ltd.

Trade data shows importers have managed to maintain some supplies by shifting to factories outside China. Shipments of surgical gowns, for example, have dropped less than 5% since December, since they are now coming from Honduras. The same is true for medical gloves, which are now primarily coming from South Korea.

The federal government said a national stockpile was being made available at the state level, but governors said they weren’t getting what they need.

“I think every governor in the United States has been banging on the door of the federal government with respect to the stockpile. We certainly have, and we’re going to continue to,” Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker said at a news conference this week.

Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious-disease specialist at the University of California-San Francisco, said he was alarmed by new CDC advice for hospitals that run out of masks.

“For the CDC to say people can wear bandanas is actually quite frightening,” he said. “I never thought the CDC would say something like that. We’re in the United States of America in 2020, and we have a recommendation to use bandanas?”
US virus testing faces new headwind: Lab supply shortages

FILE - In this Wednesday, March 11, 2020 file photo, a technician prepares COVID-19 coronavirus patient samples for testing at a laboratory in New York's Long Island. Wide scale testing is a critical part of tracking and containing infectious diseases. But the U.S. effort has been plagued by a series of missteps, including accuracy problems with the test kits the CDC sent to other labs and bureaucratic hurdles that slowed the entrance of large, private sector labs. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)


WASHINGTON (AP) — First, some of the coronavirus tests didn’t work. Then there weren’t enough to go around. Now, just as the federal government tries to ramp up nationwide screening, laboratory workers are warning of a new roadblock: dire shortages of testing supplies.

The shortages are the latest stumble in a botched effort to track the spread of coronavirus that has left the U.S. weeks behind many other developed countries. Dwindling supplies include both chemical components and basic swabs needed to collect patient samples.

There are “acute, serious shortages across the board” for supplies needed to do the tests, said Eric Blank, of the Association of Public Health Laboratories, which represents state and local health labs.

\Late Friday, Blank’s group and two other public health organizations recommended that testing be scaled back due to “real, immediate, wide-scale shortages.” The groups said only patients with COVID-19 symptoms who are elderly, have high-risk medical conditions or are medical staff should be tested.

“Testing for individuals who are not in these three groups is not recommended until sufficient testing supplies and capacity become more widely available,” said the joint statement, issued with the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials and the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists.

Testing is a critical part of tracking and containing infectious diseases like COVID-19. But the U.S. effort has been plagued by a series of missteps, including accuracy problems with tests the CDC sent to other labs and bureaucratic hurdles that slowed the entrance of large, private sector labs.

With the virus spreading, officials in the U.S. have shifted focus from tracking the virus to extraordinary measures to blunt its damage. On Thursday California’s governor told its 40 million residents to stay home indefinitely and venture outside only for essential jobs.

But public health experts stress that policymakers are “flying blind” in deciding how to manage the pandemic.

“The only way to get through it without testing is to keep the entire country quarantined for the next 18 months” said Dr. Ashish Jha, a Harvard University global health professor. “That obviously is untenable.”

Jha and his colleagues say the U.S. should be screening 100,000 to 150,000 people per day. The current rate is roughly 20,000 per day, he estimates, though it is accelerating as larger commercial companies ramp up testing.

The director of Missouri’s state lab said Friday that his facility is facing shortages of swabs, liquids to store patient samples and kits to develop the results. Many labs are having similar problems, said Bill Whitmar.

“Quite frankly, 95% to 98% of the talk between lab directors has been about the shortage of supplies,” Whitmar said.

At this point only 500 swabs are available. And the lab only has supplies to last through Tuesday, he reported.

The Jefferson City lab does only a fraction of the coronavirus testing performed in Missouri, with commercial labs now doing the largest share. But Whitmar’s lab is where tests are run on the people most likely to be infected in that state.

The shortages have become a central concern in increasingly urgent communications among governors and federal officials.

“Most of my phone calls today have been about swabs,” Gov. Gina Raimondo of Rhode Island said during a Tuesday news conference. “That’s our big issue at the moment.”

The Trump administration’s top health official suggested Friday that the “anecdotal” reports of shortages are caused by confusion about how to find alternative supplies.

“Usually it’s that the lab people do not understand that there are alternative supplies in the marketplace that they are perfectly free to use,” Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar told reporters in a briefing at the White House. He said the federal government is purchasing and shipping swabs to states.

Whitmar, the Missouri lab director, said many suppliers just don’t have the products in stock.

“An order is not a swab in hand,” he said.

On Friday, New York City health officials directed medical providers to limit COVID-19 testing to people sick enough to require hospitalization, saying wider testing is exhausting supplies of protective equipment. The city’s health department said unnecessary testing was contributing to a shortage of masks, gowns, collection swabs and other supplies.

The coronavirus test uses a chemical chain reaction to detect tiny traces of the virus’ genetic material and reproduce it many times. State and local health labs follow the technique first developed by the CDC, which calls for a specific genetic kit made by German diagnostic firm Qiagen. Labs around the globe are reporting shortage of those kits.

Qiagen said this week it is trying to boost production from normal levels, which are capable of testing 1.5 million patients per month, to amounts that would allow for testing more than 10 million patients by the end of June.

The World Health Organization has instructed countries to “test, test, test” to track and isolate those carrying the virus. But the evolving message from U.S. decision-makers acknowledges that many suspected cases will likely go untested.

The White House has increasingly emphasized that testing should prioritize the elderly and health care workers who have symptoms of the virus. While most cases of COVID-19 are mild and tens of thousands of people have recovered, older people and those with underlying health problems are at higher risk for more serious problems, such as pneumonia.

“We don’t want everyone to go out and get a test because there’s no reason for it,” President Donald Trump told reporters in a briefing Friday. (Two weeks ago, Trump declared “anybody who wants a test can get a test.” But his deputies later walked back that statement.)

The CDC tells people to seek testing if they have certain symptoms of the flu-like illness caused by the coronavirus – fever, cough and trouble breathing – and if they have traveled recently to an outbreak area or have been in close contact with someone who is infected. They should first be tested for the flu and other routine infections.

While doctors are supposed to decide who ultimately gets tested, many state labs have adjusted their guidelines depending on testing availability.

The Trump administration is expected to soon announce the rollout of nearly 50 community-based testing centers around the country, including drive-thru sites.
Full Coverage: Virus Outbreak

Some experts worry the introduction of convenient, mass screening will divert supplies from people with severe symptoms to those who face lower risks.

“It’s taking supplies that are already in very short supply away from the testing laboratories that are doing necessary testing,” said Blank, of the public health labs association.


The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

'I Have Bills I Have to Pay.' Low-Wage Workers Face Brunt of Coronavirus Crisis

As coronavirus shutdowns halt commerce across the U.S., low-wage workers, many of whom live paycheck to paycheck, are being quickly stung.

© ThinkStock

The affected jobs, by their nature, often require broad personal contact, such as running a cash register or cleaning hotel rooms. That substantially raises the risk of infection.

Many such workers also hold positions most vulnerable to quick job cuts and pay cuts, especially in service industries.

That includes restaurant workers, hotel maids, dog walkers and child-care providers. In many cases, the cuts are tied to shutdowns and cancellations of events in sports stadiums, industry conventions, casinos, music festivals and other public gatherings.

The group encompasses many workers who were late beneficiaries of the surge in hiring as the labor market tightened in recent years—including members of minority groups or people with less education and skills—during one of the longest and most lucrative growth phases in U.S. history.

Malls, restaurants and hotels have closed in many areas of the country. Already, the number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits—a proxy for layoffs—increased last week by 70,000 from the previous week, with states telling the Labor Department the cause was the pandemic. Economists predict a much bigger surge when numbers are released for this week, with Goldman Sachs Economics Research estimating roughly 2.25 million new claims for jobless benefits.

More than 90% of the announced U.S. job cuts tied to the coronavirus were at restaurants and other entertainment and leisure businesses, according to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

For many who retain their jobs, tips and commissions have evaporated. Working at home isn’t an option, nor is sick pay.

“I don’t want to leave the job because it’s my financial stability,” said Chandler Schaffer, who is 23 years old and earns $10.50 an hour working at a pawnshop in South Carolina. For now, he is continuing to work even though he has diabetes and is terrified of being infected by the virus. “Right now it’s a very big pit of uncertainty with everything,” he said.

Line cook Che Janezich, 35, has watched the crowds thin and her hours dwindle at Omega Ouzeri, the Greek restaurant where she works in Seattle, making $21 an hour, or about $3,000 a month.

Now that the city has shut down restaurants except for takeout service, Ms. Janezich said Thursday that her hours, which went from 45 a week to 25 recently, were cut again to about 11 a week. She has already tapped her savings to pay rent this month.

“I walk down the street and see homeless people every single day. I’ve always known I’m a paycheck or two away from that,” she said. “But now it seems even more real, which is scary.”

She said the only places hiring in the area now are the Amazon.com warehouse or grocery stores, which she said feels like a step backward. “It’s like that cliché of you don’t know how good you have it until it’s gone,” she said.

There are more than 34 million people in this pool of the most vulnerable workers, or about a quarter of the private workforce. About half this group were employed in services jobs in the hospitality industry, where occupations earn less than the overall median pay for all U.S. workers of $18.58. The median wage for a restaurant job is $11.09 an hour.

The other half come from retail, personal and maintenance service jobs—many of which start at the minimum wage, as low as $7.25 an hour, depending on the state.

Despite an economic expansion that brought with it a 50-year low in unemployment, many American households remain a paycheck away from financial stress. Almost 40% of Americans don’t have enough cash on hand to cover an unexpected $400 expense, a 2019 Federal Reserve survey concluded.

The virus relief bill passed by Congress this week expands unemployment insurance and provides more money for food stamps, aiming to provide an initial safety net as layoffs increase. The bill also requires businesses with fewer than 500 employees provide two weeks of paid leave in certain circumstances, with an additional 10 weeks of leave at two-thirds pay for workers to care for children when their schools or day cares close.

The bill increases Medicaid funding, and President Trump’s emergency declaration last week allowed states to waive certain enrollment requirements, including providing fewer documents, for accessing the health-insurance program.

Meanwhile, potential direct payments to Americans, part of a further stimulus package under discussion in Congress, could provide a cash cushion.

“Getting infected with the virus is not as much of an existential threat to my life as not having money for rent and food,” said Ali Tahir, of Austin, Texas, who operates a small catering business specializing in Pakistani food and works as an event bartender. The two gigs are his only source of income and both are essentially shut down.

He thinks he can’t file for unemployment benefits because, like many low-wage and gig-workers, he is self-employed and therefore ineligible.

Mr. Tahir, 35, was counting on making at least $4,000 this month with work surrounding South by Southwest, a weeklong music and film festival that drew 400,000 people last year. This year’s event was canceled by the city.

March is normally his busiest month, and the losses are a significant blow to his overall income, which was about $24,000 last year.

His catering work often involves cooking in private homes. “No one really wants you to come to their house and cook right now,” he said.

His roommate is a computer programmer who is working from home. “For him, this is a thing on the news ticker,” he said. “For me, it’s really something to worry about.”

Millions of professionals have been able to hunker down in home offices, insulating themselves from the contagion risks posed by commutes and colleagues. But interacting with others is part of the job for retail and food-service workers.

“So much of customer service has to do with, not you being comfortable, but you making them feel comfortable,” said Mr. Schaffer, the pawnshop worker, who said he makes around $23,000 a year. “You have to be close to them. You have to shake hands. You have to have this personal-feeling relationship.”

Sick leave is a rarity among these jobs. Of the lowest 10% of wage earners, 69% didn’t have sick leave last year, according to the Labor Department. That compares with just 6% of the top 10% of wage earners lacking the benefit. In the accommodation and food services sector, 55% of workers don’t have sick leave.

In the recovery after the 2007-09 recession, hospitality jobs have grown nearly 50% faster than the whole private sector, Labor Department data showed. That eventually pulled in parts of the workforce that were the last to benefit from the expansion: African-Americans, Latinos and those with lower levels of education, who now have near record low unemployment rates.

Wages for low earners grew slowly at the beginning of the expansion, but in the past year grew at a faster rate than higher-earning Americans, according to the Atlanta Federal Reserve.

“There’s a last-in, first-out problem,” Lisa Cook, an economist at Michigan State University, said. “The economic effects of this virus are going to have a substantial impact on low-wage workers, who are disproportionately women, African-Americans and Latinos, and it’s going to happen quickly.”

Before the crisis hit, things were just getting easier for 41-year-old Erin Schumacher, who worked as a server at two Seattle restaurants, making around $45,000 a year.

She usually had two shifts a week at Etta’s, a seafood restaurant, and three or four at Serious Pie, a pizza place with a dependable Amazon worker lunch crowd. She was working enough hours to qualify for health insurance, which kicked in last month, and began saving a little.

Both restaurants closed their doors for at least eight weeks. She already is attempting to work out payment plans for medical bills and rent.

“I started a 401(k) and paid off some credit cards and student loans,” she said. “And now it’s like, I’m on unemployment.”

She applied for a job at Swedish Medical Center to work as a materials handler, charged with moving medical equipment for $23 an hour, she said, adding that is less than she currently makes and doesn’t include benefits. She was told she starts March 30.

“I feel a little scared I’m going to get Covid-19. But I also think it’ll be nice to be useful during a time when so many people are seeking help at the medical facilities,” she said, referring to the disease caused by the coronavirus.

Adam Werner, co-head of consulting firm AlixPartners’ restaurants, hospitality and leisure practice, said some quick-service restaurants are trying to blunt losses by shifting to carryout and delivery services. He said the transition is harder for traditional restaurants that often count on dining-room sales for 85% to 90% of revenue.

“You can’t just flip a switch and become a delivery-based restaurant,” he said. Job loss, sometimes in the form of reduced hours, is happening in the industry, he added.

“It’s not a layoff, per se,” he said. “It’s, you check your schedule and instead of five shifts, you now have one or zero.”

The travel and hotel business, which employs millions of low-wage workers, has already been hit especially hard by the pandemic. After years of stable employment, Dina Paredes is bracing for uncertainty around her paychecks. The 52-year-old housekeeper at a Westin hotel in downtown Los Angeles has cleaned about 14 rooms per shift for the past eight years. As the hotel’s occupancy dropped this month, she and other colleagues have been transitioned to “on-call” status. In the past week, she hasn’t worked a single day, and she isn’t paid unless she gets work.

“Of course it is concerning,” the mother of four said through a translator for Unite Here Local 11, the union that represents workers at the hotel. “I have family. I have bills I have to pay.”

More white-collar employees working from home means customers aren’t riding in taxis, ordering coffee or dining out at lunch. And they can now take care of their own pets during the day.

Dog-walking service NYC Pooch suspended operations Tuesday and has laid off its staff of about 50 people, said co-founder Shane McEvoy.

When work started to dwindle last week, Mr. McEvoy started giving employees the option of being laid off, so that they could tap unemployment benefits. He said most employees took him up on the offer, because they will be paid more in jobless benefits than they would earn with a few walks a week.

Mr. McEvoy said employees start at New York City’s $15 an hour minimum wage and earn commissions based on the volume of work they do. In a phone interview, he got choked up when he said he was unable to keep employees.

“It all comes down to what cash you have on hand,” he said. “Everyone would love to keep people. The fact is, it’s not possible.” He said he tried to find low-interest loans to keep the business afloat but has struggled to secure financing.

Mr. McEvoy said he is reaching out to customers to see if they can offer cash donations for workers, essentially paying them for walks they didn’t provide. He said some clients have said they would do so.

Tyler Dziendziel, of Wyandotte, Mich., feared he would lose about half his income when the National Basketball League and National Hockey League suspended games. One of his two jobs is working security at Detroit’s Little Caesars Arena. Mr. Dziendziel, 24, began to debate whether he should pay rent on his mobile home or pay for repairs for a vehicle he needs to do his other job, arranging store displays for Frito-Lay products.

But he received good news this week when he was told team owners would pay him and other arena workers for scheduled shifts through April. “I’m really happy I’ll be getting paid and able to keep up with my bills,” said Mr. Dziendziel, a member of the United for Respect worker advocacy group. “I wish every company could do this for their workers.”

Andy Challenger, senior vice president at outplacement firm Challenger Gray & Christmas said coronavirus-related layoffs are coming in waves. First, some firms experienced supply disruptions from China and had to temporarily idle some employees. Then, airlines and cruise lines announced furloughs as travel from Asia slowed and Americans became skittish about taking and booking trips. The third wave is occurring at restaurants and other businesses that depend on foot traffic.

“It’s not the big companies that are announcing layoffs,” he said, noting a difference, at least for now, from the financial crisis and the months following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. “It’s the smaller, independent businesses that you’re not going to see in the headlines, but it adds up.”

Lower-skilled workers could be viewed as more easily replaceable than workers with specialized skills, Mr. Challenger said.

“Three weeks ago we were in the tightest labor market in 50 years, so companies might be hesitant to let people go,” he said. “Day-by-day, hour-by-hour, that feels less likely.”

Trump Resists Pressure to Use Wartime Law to Mobilize Industry in Virus Response

Katie Rogers, Maggie Haberman and Ana Swanson

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction: An earlier version of this article referred incorrectly to a federal law being considered for use to mobilize industry. It is the Defense Production Act, not the Defense Protection Act.

WASHINGTON — President Trump and his advisers have resisted calls from congressional Democrats and a growing number of governors to use a federal law that would mobilize industry and provide badly needed resources against the coronavirus spread, days after the president said he would consider using that authority.

Mr. Trump has given conflicting signals about the Defense Production Act since he first said on Wednesday that he was prepared to invoke the law, which was passed by Congress at the outset of the Korean War and grants presidents extraordinary powers to force American industries to ensure the availability of critical equipment.

The next day, he suggested that obtaining medical equipment should be up to individual governors because “we’re not a shipping clerk.” But on Friday, he reversed himself, asserting that he had used the law to spur the production of “millions of masks,” without offering evidence or specifics about who was manufacturing them or when they would reach health workers.

And Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, said that he was left with the impression after talking with Mr. Trump that he had decided to move to put the act into effect. He said “a commitment on the phone was a good start,” but that the president now needed to push the government “to move full steam ahead.”

But Mr. Trump’s confusing statements played out in the middle of a growing health crisis that within days has abruptly and indefinitely altered the course of American life.

With the number of coronavirus cases in the United States surging above 16,000 — over 40 percent of those concentrated in New York — front-line health care workers have reported a dire shortage of masks, surgical gowns and eye gear to protect them from the virus. State lawmakers have also implored the president to help them get the supplies they need.

Business leaders have said invoking the defense law is not necessary. During his appearance with the members of his coronavirus task force on Friday, Mr. Trump supported that idea and said that private companies, including General Motors, had volunteered to produce supplies without any prompting from the government.

“We are literally being besieged in a beautiful way by companies that want to do the work and help our country,” Mr. Trump said. “We have not had a problem with that at all.”

Some of the president’s advisers have privately said that they share the longstanding opposition of conservatives to government intervention and oppose using the law, and the president again signaled his own ambivalence about it.

“When we need something, we’ll order something,” Mr. Trump said of the act. “As you know two days ago, I invoked the act. It is a big step. I am not sure if it is done before. When we need something, we’ll use it.”

Asked Friday night about specific ways the Defense Production Act has been used, the White House said in a statement that the president was “currently using it to drive the private sector’s response to this crisis,” and that he had invoked the act “to ensure that the necessary authorities will be available to prioritize production of items under government contracts and to allocate scarce items where they are needed most.”

In signing the executive order on Wednesday to put the act into effect, Mr. Trump said the purpose was to expedite distribution of “health and medical resources needed to respond to the spread of Covid-19, including personal protective equipment and ventilators,” and that Alex M. Azar II, the secretary of health and human services, could order production and distribution of supplies, if necessary.

But the president did not say if masks and ventilators in anything near the necessary quantity have actually been delivered to the workers who need them.

During Friday’s briefing, Mr. Trump grew increasingly confrontational with reporters as they pressed him on the details of the Defense Production Act, and he snapped at Peter Alexander, a reporter for NBC News, who asked him what he would say to Americans who were scared.

“I say, you’re a terrible reporter,” Mr. Trump replied.

“It is a bad signal that you are putting out to the American people,” the president continued. “You want to get back to reporting instead of sensationalism. Let’s see if it works. I happen to feel good about it. Who knows. I have been right a lot. Let’s see what happens.”

As the coronavirus has spread, Mr. Trump has come under withering attack from Democrats for the speed at which he has mobilized the government to respond.

“We’re talking about a president who is basically doing what Herbert Hoover did at the beginning of the Depression and minimizing the danger and refusing to use available federal action,” Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York said Friday in an interview with the radio station WNYC. “And people are going to die, and they shouldn’t, they don’t have to, if we could get the support that we’re asking for.”

Republicans have not been openly critical, but some governors have been explicit in describing their difficulties in depending on the private sector for medical supplies.

In a call held on Thursday with Mr. Trump, a group of governors stressed to him that they were struggling to address the staggering demand for equipment.

At one point, Gov. Kristi Noem, Republican of South Dakota, grew frustrated as she expressed to the president and members of the coronavirus task force that state officials had been working unsuccessfully with private suppliers.

“I need to understand how you’re triaging supplies,” Ms. Noem said. “We, for two weeks, were requesting reagents for our public health lab from C.D.C., who pushed us to private suppliers who kept canceling orders on us. And we kept making requests, placing orders.”

She added, “I don’t want to be less of a priority because we’re a smaller state or less populated.”

Mr. Trump promised her that would “never” happen before Ms. Noem’s telephone line was disconnected.

When it was originally passed, the Defense Production Act granted President Harry S. Truman the power to spur the production of aluminum, titanium and other needed materials during wartime. Since then, it has been used for both the prevention of terrorism and to prepare for natural disasters.

The act would give the Trump administration the authority to override companies’ existing contracts and to direct supplies to hot spots like New York City or Seattle. It could also help mobilize funds for retooling factories, refitting pharmacy drive-throughs into testing sites and ramping up production of an eventual vaccine.

But John Murphy, the senior vice president for international policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said that corporate executives were already working “hand in glove” with the government on production challenges.

“American companies will do whatever it takes to support our country’s response to the pandemic and shore up the economy,” he said. “The Defense Production Act was designed for defense industry products with a single supplier, often with purely domestic production chains, and invoking it may do more harm than good in sectors such as pharmaceuticals and medical equipment.”

Companies that manufacture face masks, medical wipes and other supplies say they are already operating around the clock to meet elevated demand. Some factories that make similar products — like surgical gowns, diapers and incontinence products — have already switched over to manufacture the face masks or other protective gear that health care workers need.

But people familiar with the administration’s actions say it is still trying to figure out how industry supply chains operate, which companies could produce additional products and what kinds of subsidies it may need to offer.

And without the Defense Production Act, the government will lack the ability to channel these supplies to areas that need it most — or to persuade companies to act quickly and without regard for their profits.

As reported cases of the virus in the United States have soared, Mr. Trump, who is known to recruit input from a variety of outside advisers, has been getting conflicting advice. The proliferating number of private sector voices with direct access to the president and his top advisers — notably his son-in-law and adviser, Jared Kushner — has resulted in a chaotic process.

The president’s advisers say they see the role of the federal government as a facilitator, as opposed to the chief producer or a national governor. They have tried to encourage states to get by with what they can, suggesting there will be support from the federal government but that this should not be the first option.

In practice, the administration has been trying to use the provision to jawbone companies into taking voluntary action while holding over them the possibility that the federal government would intervene, according to administration officials familiar with the state of play.

“We’re actually encouraged that the partnership with the private sector can meeting many of these needs,” said Marc Short, Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff, on Friday morning in a discussion with reporters.


Katie Rogers and Ana Swanson reported from Washington, and Maggie Haberman from New York. Michael Gold

Face Masks Run Short, Showing Snags in U.S. Medical Stockpile
CORONAVIRUS IS THE ULTIMATE CRISIS OF CAPITALISM
(Bloomberg) -- A week after Washington state requested a fresh shipment of protective medical gear from the federal government’s emergency stockpile, it hadn’t been approved.

The delay comes as medical workers nationwide scramble for masks, face-shields, and gowns to protect themselves while treating patients who may have Covid-19. Health authorities and hospitals have changed their guidelines for what level of protections are recommended as the supplies run short.

Some doctors are concerned that the delay increases the risk for themselves and their patients, several said in interviews. Most asked not to be identified by name because they were not permitted to speak publicly.

In many settings, medical workers are being advised to treat the new coronavirus as though it spreads only through droplets, though some doctors believe that stricter precautions used for airborne pathogens are more appropriate. Growing evidence that the virus is sometimes spread by people before they show symptoms increases the risk of inadequate protective gear. Doctors and nurses who might be exposed to Covid-19 patients and continue working could unwittingly infect other patients and clinicians.

President Trump said Friday that he has invoked the Defense Production Act, which could be used to increase the supply of protective gear. It remains unclear whether the administration has mandated new production.

The move came after widespread frustration from states and medical workers over shortages as the number of Americans with Covid-19 climbs. Lawmakers in Massachusetts have been pushing the federal government to release more of its Strategic National Stockpile. On March 5, the state had requested about 750,000 N95 masks, surgical masks, gloves, gowns and other PPE. But so far, it’s only received about 10 percent of that request, according to a Wednesday letter from the state’s congressional delegation.

“We’re seeing a major, major shortage of PPE and it’s expected to only get worse,” said Donna Kelly-Williams, president of the Massachusetts Nurses Association.

Nurses can’t exercise social-distancing like everyone else, said Kelly-Williams. They need to interact closely with patients, touch them, take their temperature. Since hospitals are saving N95 masks and other types of PPE for known Covid-19 patients, this puts nurses at risk. “The greatest worry is the number of people who are asymptomatic,” she said.

One New York hospital system warned staff that it was running low on needed protective equipment and sent out guidelines to conserve gowns, gloves, masks, and face shields. Staff were advised to discard masks only if they were visibly wet, contaminated or damaged. N95 respirators, which are used to protect against airborne pathogens, are in “critical shortage,” according to documents seen by Bloomberg News.

One of the nation’s largest physician staffing companies, Envision Healthcare, sent an email to doctors this week encouraging them to purchase their own protective equipment if they can. Envision provides thousands of doctors and other medical staff to hospitals nationwide. One doctor who works for the company said the suppliers the company suggested were all out. An Envision spokeswoman said physicians rely on hospitals to supply equipment and that the company was trying to keep its doctors safe.

One physician at a New York City hospital said doctors had to sign out N95 respirator masks from a central nurses’ station and were told they would be given one for the day. The physician was told to store it in a paper bag with the physician’s name on it.

Every hospital is dealing with shortages differently. “There’s just general sort of confusion,” said Deepak Bhatt, a cardiologist at Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston. He said the hospital has adequate supplies, but a “patchwork” approach to conserving protective equipment could exacerbate shortages. “Part of the challenge is lack of clarity and sort of unity on a national level in terms of exactly what we should be doing,” he said.

In Washington state, two previous requests for supplies from the strategic national stockpile were fulfilled, delivering 870,000 surgical and N95 masks to the state in the first two weeks of March. The state requested more on March 13, along with face shields and gowns, but as of Friday, the request hadn’t been approved, a state spokeswoman said. The Department of Health and Human Services didn’t immediately respond to questions about the delay in Washington state.

Medical systems have people working full-time to try to buttress their thinning reserves. “We’re literally looking all over the world,” said Yvonne Maldonado, an infectious disease specialist with Stanford Health Care. “It’s not going to be easy.”

Some health systems were improvising solutions. Providence St. Joseph Health, based in Washington state, began assembling home-spun masks and face shields with off-the-shelf supplies this week. By Friday it was recruiting volunteers with sewing machines on its website to pick up kits with materials at its headquarters in Renton, Washington, and sew 100 masks at home.

The project will expand to other areas from there, with the ultimate goal of making 100 million masks, according to the website.

In addition to Providence St. Joseph Health, other hospitals have begun to put together their own supplies. Phoebe Putney Health System, based in Albany, Georgia, has been making its own homemade masks to cover the scarce N95 masks. Now, they’ve developed a prototype for a homemade face shield and hope to ramp up production of it on Monday.

Deaconess Health System, based in Evansville, Indiana, has also been encouraging the public to help sew face masks. It put up instructions on its website, saying “while it’s less than ideal, we want to do our best to protect our staff and patients during this pandemic.”

The Centers for Disease Control has published guidance on how to conserve limited protective gear and what to do if it runs short. As a last resort, it says, homemade masks may be used. “However, caution should be exercised when considering this option,” the agency said.

'This system is doomed': Doctors, nurses sound off in NBC News coronavirus survey

CORONAVIRUS IS THE ULTIMATE CRISIS OF CAPITALISM

A hospital nurse in Michigan says she and her colleagues have discussed bringing in bleach to make their own disinfectant wipes. A pregnant nurse in Ohio says she has no choice but to tend to critically ill patients without a specialized N95 mask. And a health care worker in Georgia has resorted to scouring local hardware stores in an effort to secure the protective masks.

© Provided by NBC News Medical workers wearing their PPE, personal protective gear.

These are just some of the stories told to NBC News by more than 250 health care providers on the frontlines of the coronavirus pandemic, including many who work in major hospitals.

The accounts were solicited through an NBC News survey, pushed out on social media, about access to personal protective equipment (PPE), a broad term for the gear, such as masks, glasses, gowns and respirators, donned by healthcare workers to protect against the transmission of germs.

Nearly all who responded said there were shortages of PPE in the hospitals, outpatient clinics and offices where they worked.

Many reported being forced to ration or reuse supplies, including surgical and N-95 masks, for fear of running out. Many also said they were facing shortages of basic sanitary supplies, including hand sanitizer and disinfectant wipes.

© via social media A nurse in Illinois shared a photo of her N-95 mask she keeps in a bag labelled with her name. Many healthcare workers are being asked to ration their personal protective equipment.

NBC News was not able to independently verify each account. But where possible, the facilities were contacted and given an opportunity to respond.


The nurse in Michigan, who is based in Flint and works primarily with immunocompromised patients, said that nurses at her hospital have been rationed one N95 mask each and are being required to store them in a bag and reuse them, against manufacturer guidelines. Nurses on her floor, she added, have also been unable to obtain enough disinfectant wipes.

"We ordered five containers the other day and we only got one," she said. Like many medical professionals who spoke to NBC News, she asked to remain anonymous for fear of losing her job. "One container of bleach wipes for 42 beds."

"I don't feel like my hospital is failing us," she said. "It's the whole system that's failing us."

"We certainly would not ask a firefighter to fight a fire with a spray gun," said Deborah Burger, president of National Nurses United, the nation's largest nurses' union. Burger, who has been a registered nurse for 45 years, said that neither the government nor the private sector are acting fast enough to get critical supplies to those that need them.

"It is a moral obligation of our government and our employer to provide safety equipment to those of us on the front line," she said.

"We are unable to protect ourselves"

The overwhelming majority of the medical professionals across the country who responded to the NBC News survey expressed concerns about a lack of N95 masks, which offer more protection than surgical masks.

A health care worker at a hospital in Indiana described a Kafkaesque scenario: medical staffers can only get the masks when a patient has tested positive for the virus, but the facility has no way to confirm a case.

"There are many possible exposures in my hospital but are not equipped with the testing devices in order to confirm the cases," the worker wrote. "We are then not allowed to wear proper PPE because they are not 'positive' and because our hospital is short on the PPE. We are also told that we are expected to keep the N-95 masks for several days and several patients and that they can be disinfected with Sanicloth wipes."

"We do not have N95 masks, so we are being asked to intubate patients (which exposes us to entire airway) with normal masks," wrote the pregnant nurse from Ohio. "It is unacceptable. We are supposed to treat every patient as suspected positive but we are unable to protect ourselves."

The N95 mask filters out airborne particulates and aerosols, and the Food and Drug Administration advises that neither N-95 masks, nor surgical masks, should be used more than once.

But in response to growing shortages of PPE, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has loosened its guidelines on proper use and reuse of masks. On Thursday, the agency advised that bandanas and scarves could be used by healthcare workers in place of a mask as a last resort.

"The fact that a recommendation like that came out from the Centers for Disease Control is mind boggling to me," said Dr. Adam Friedlander, an emergency physician working in Atlanta, GA.

"There was a time when a recommendation came from the CDC we knew that it was evidence-based guidelines for how we could protect ourselves from becoming sick with a potentially fatal illness. Now we know the recommendations are coming from a place of desperation, acknowledging that these supplies are unavailable."

A nurse who works at a major hospital in Massachusetts and spoke to NBC News on the condition of anonymity, said that medical staff have been told they must reuse their N95 masks five times before they are able to get a new one.

"It's scary to have to reuse the mask," she said. "At the same time it's like, what are you supposed to do if there's none to be had?"

"A nationwide problem"

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement this week that the agency has been steadily deploying PPE to areas in need from the Strategic National Stockpile, the nation's supply of pharmaceutical and medical supplies, intended for use during a severe public health emergency.

"We have been transparent that more supplies are needed - hence the request to Congress for additional funding so we could procure more and scale up production," the statement said. "The role of the SNS is to fill the gap temporarily until states and localities working with the private sector can respond to the state and local needs."

The survey responses reveal the scope of the shortages, as many medical professionals pleaded for the government to step up delivery of supplies.

"We have no proper PPE," wrote one survey respondent, who works in a hospital in New York City. "We are being told to come to work even if you had a COVID exposure...This system is doomed for failure without immediate help from the military. We need PPE, vents, staffing, more hospital beds, more tests."

In the meantime, health care systems and staff are being forced to improvise.

One doctor, who works at a rural health clinic in Virginia, said that clinics are increasingly being asked to fill the gap and send their PPE supplies to hospitals, where the need is greater.

But that, of course, leaves clinics—and the patients they serve—exposed.

"There simply isn't enough stock," said the doctor, who spoke to NBC News on condition of anonymity. "We have no N-95s or gowns. We have limited surgical masks."

"This is a nationwide problem, even on the private side," he added. "No clinic in this country, or hospital for that matter, is going to have enough equipment."

The limited supply of PPE has forced some hospitals to take the extraordinary step of asking the community for help. Seattle Children's Hospital in Washington has received thousands of donated protective equipment and is currently accepting curbside drop-off of additional masks, gowns and gloves.

"Thanks to members of the local and international community, to date we have received 15,100 isolation masks, 1,200 N95 respirator masks and 400 surgical masks from donations," a hospital spokesperson said.

"I am so scared"

Three survey respondents reported that they were asked to work with patients who tested positive for the virus without adequate protective gear. Others reported that they faced disciplinary action for using PPE outside of specified circumstances.

A memo distributed this week to Monmouth Medical Center Southern Campus in New Jersey, part of RWJBarnabas Health Facilities, informed staff that PPE must be worn in all rooms containing individuals with suspected or confirmed cases, but that staff could be disciplined for wearing masks, gloves and gowns outside patient rooms.

"RWJBarnabas Health facilities, including Monmouth Medical Center Southern Campus, are concerned about the possibility of a potential shortage of PPE including masks, eye shields and gowns," a spokesperson told NBC News. "We are carefully managing current inventory of items to ensure adequate supply of materials to protect our staff and the community.

Dr. Robert Morin, a plastic surgeon who works in emergency rooms in major hospitals in New York City and New Jersey, said that such policies, put into place in response to shortages, put healthcare workers at risk. "We don't need hospital administrators going out of the way to make us sick," he said.

Dr. Morin said that he has been exposed to patients with positive cases while working in an operating room without proper PPE. "I don't feel like we're getting the support we need," he said.

"The chaos, the lack of supplies, the lack of equipment," he added. "The numbers are just going to keep going up."

Some survey respondents and others who spoke to NBC News reported searching for PPE at local stores or on websites, like Ebay.

A doctor in Philadelphia, who is married to a doctor who works in a major hospital in the city, told NBC News that her husband searched for an N-95 mask at four hardware stores before his shift yesterday but could find none.

"He says, "It's my duty,'" she said. "He is proud of doing all that he is able to do right now, which I am also proud of, but I am so scared. I can't even begin to tell you."

Dr. Nivedita Lakhera, a doctor in San Jose, Calif., said her hospital is working hard to get N-95 masks for all doctors but they are in short supply. She shared messages with NBC News from doctors she knows who are worried about their own mortality.

"The doctors are talking about making living wills and what will happen when we are faced with this," she said. "All of us are wondering which one of us will die."

LIES, DAMNED LIES AND LABOUR STATS 

Labor Department asked states to delay releasing increased unemployment numbers: report

Alicia Cohn and Naomi Jagoda

The Trump administration asked state labor officials to delay releasing exact numbers for increased unemployment claims, according to a report in The New York Times.

© Getty Images Labor Department asked states to delay releasing increased unemployment numbers: report

"States should not provide numeric values to the public," Gay Gilbert, the administrator of Labor Department's Office of Employment Insurance, wrote in a memo Wednesday that was reviewed by the news outlet.

Some states have started to report the number of unemployment claims they've seen so far this week as more and more businesses have been closing in an effort to stop the spread of the coronavirus.

The Labor Department email also asks states to only "provide information using generalities to describe claims levels (very high, large increase)" until the department releases the total number of nationwide jobless claims for this week on Thursday of next week.

The memo argues that the state reports should be delayed because the financial markets watch them closely.

Gilbert has worked at the Labor Department during both Democratic and Republican administrations, and the Times reported that there is no evidence that political appointees directed her to send the email. The news outlet reported that some states that received Gilbert's email were bothered by it.

A Labor Department spokesperson said in a statement that "state data is regularly embargoed until the national numbers are published on Thursday morning and states are asked not to share their data until that time."

"As a leading economic indicator that has the potential to impact policy decisions and financial markets, it is important to ensure the information is communicated in a consistent and fair manner," the spokesperson added.

The Times story came out after the Labor Department on Thursday reported that there was a 30 percent increase in unemployment claims last week. The number of unemployment claims is expected to increase further as the number of business closures goes up.

Cruise ships kept sailing as coronavirus spread. Travelers and health experts question why.

Beth Reinhard, Rosalind Helderman, Faiz Siddiqui, Mark Berman

It was one of the first outbreaks of coronavirus to capture global attention: For weeks in February, the cruise ship Diamond Princess was moored off the shore of Japan with hundreds of infected people aboard.

© Takashi Aoyama/AFP/Getty Images Despite a Feb. 5 quarantine, 700 people aboard the Diamond Princess eventually tested positive for the novel coronavirus. The ship is seen in Yokohama, Japan, on Feb. 21.

Then in early March, nearly 2,000 passengers had to be quarantined on U.S. military bases after infected passengers were found on the Grand Princess, a sister ship operated by Carnival Corp.-owned Princess Cruises.

By the time major cruise lines halted new voyages last Friday, at least half a dozen other ships had sailed with at least one passenger later diagnosed with highly contagious virus.


While cruise lines have seen only a small fraction of the pandemic, they have emerged as a particularly tricky battleground to fight the virus. Health experts said the industry’s initial resistance to take drastic action — coupled with a deference from government officials, who let the companies to come up with their own action plan — put more passengers at risk.

“The cruise ship response was definitely lagging behind expert opinion on how big the risks are,” said University of Chicago epidemiologist Katelyn Gostic. “It was sluggish decision-making and they should have responded earlier.”

The crisis has put the spotlight on an industry that critics say for years has skirted labor regulations, such a minimum wage, and federal income taxes by incorporating overseas. Yet when disasters strike, or when people get sick or fall overboard, federal agencies such as the U.S. Coast Guard come to the rescue.

The Trump administration is now pushing to spend billions to prop up the cruise industry and other hospitality and travel businesses that have been crushed by the pandemic.

“Through the years, a huge amount of federal staff resources have been diverted to dealing with cruise ship health outbreaks,” said Nicole Lurie, who served as a top official at the Department of Health and Human Services during the Obama administration. “Given all the demands on public health resources, it may be worth asking about the public investment we make in protecting cruise ship passengers by putting in place better strategies to prevent future outbreaks involving cruise ships.”

© Behrouz Mehri/AFP/Getty Images An initial CDC study published this week found that the virus quickly spread through food service workers aboard the Diamond Princess, particularly those cooking for other members of the crew.

Cruise line officials said operators are subject to robust inspection by U.S. and foreign regulators. And the industry defended its response to the pandemic, noting the singular nature of the crisis.

Bari Golin-Blaugrund, a spokeswoman for the Cruise Lines International Association, said “the agility and responsiveness of CLIA cruise line members has been on full display over the past two months.”

Within 24 hours of the World Health Organization’s declaration of a global health emergency, cruise line operators rapidly adopted enhanced protocols that she said “were repeatedly elevated as circumstances evolved over time.”

That, along with extensive cleaning and sanitation, helped limit the number of coronavirus cases aboard cruise lines, she said.

Roger Frizzell, chief communications officer of Carnival Corp., the world’s largest cruise operator and the owner of the line that operates the Diamond Princess and the Grand Princess, said cruise lines in January began barring passengers who had been to China in the previous two weeks. They later added recent travelers to Hong Kong, Macao, South Korea and regions of Italy to the no-sail list.

“To my knowledge, this was the first such restriction like this ever established in the cruise industry,” he said. “In reality, the cruise industry acted collectively and independently well before other industries when it came to the initial outbreak of coronavirus in China in December 2019.”

But in the weeks following the outbreak on the Diamond Princess, major cruise lines missed several opportunities to mitigate the crisis, according to health experts and passengers aboard the vessels.

After it was clear the coronavirus was spreading around the world, passenger screening was limited. Even on cruises where officials knew of positive tests, such as the Grand Princess, strict quarantines confining passengers to their rooms were not imposed immediately.

Inconsistent deboarding procedures also meant thousands of passengers who traveled on a ship that had carried a passenger who tested positive for the coronavirus went home with little or no medical screening — possibly bringing the virus back to their communities.

And companies stopped sailing only when the pandemic had reached a crisis point, with some countries closing their harbors, leaving ships with potentially sick people adrift.

Compounding the problem was a White House reluctant to crack down on cruises as the pandemic mounted, even as some top administration officials were urging a suspension of operations before the voluntary shutdown, as The Washington Post previously reported.

Vice President Pence, who leads the coronavirus task force, touted the industry’s initial plan to beef up passenger screening and quarantine protocols. “We want to ensure Americans can continue to enjoy the opportunities of the cruise line industry,” he said at a March 7 meeting with industry executives.

© Eliot J. Schechter/Getty Images Carnival Corp. chairman Micky Arison, left, is a longtime friend of President Trump’s. They are seen with their wives in Miami in 2005.

Trump has long-standing connections to the industry, including through Carnival Corp. chairman Micky Arison, a friend whose company helped sponsor Trump’s reality show franchise “The Apprentice” over the years. On Thursday, Trump said he spoke to Arison, who had offered up his ships to house non-coronavirus patients.

The president has repeatedly said he wants to help cruise lines with a financial rescue package, along with airlines and hotels.

“You don’t want to lose industries like this,” he said Thursday. “These are incredible industries. You can’t lose them.”

Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention boosted its warning this week against cruising to a higher level, advising any recent travelers to isolate themselves for two weeks. It also put local health departments on notice for the first time about six ships that carried infected passengers in the last month — which have already disembarked travelers who were then not quarantined.

Some customers and their family members now say the industry held back information and should have reacted more quickly.

“To avoid a panic that might collapse the industry, the cruise lines continued to mislead their passengers,” said Ashley Ecker, whose San Diego-based parents are aboard the Costa Luminosa, which continued on a voyage across the Atlantic earlier this month after a woman, later diagnosed as positive for the virus, disembarked with breathing problems. By the time the ship reached a port in France on Thursday, five additional passengers and two crew members had flu-like symptoms.

“This needs to be investigated — certainly before we even consider an industry bailout,” she said.
'They didn't want to scare anyone'

© Noah Berger/AP Passengers who boarded the Grand Princess in San Francisco on Feb. 21 were given a brief questionnaire that asked about fever, cough and recent travel to virus hotspots.

The cruise industry got an early warning of how easily the virus could spread on its massive ocean liners when the first cases emerged on the Diamond Princess in early February after it left Yokohama harbor.

Despite a Feb. 5 quarantine, 700 people aboard eventually tested positive.

An initial CDC study published Tuesday found that the virus quickly spread through food service workers, particularly those cooking for other members of the crew. “This investigation underscores the need for swift epidemiologic investigation as soon as a COVID-19 case is detected in an area or group where a large number of persons gather in a closed or crowded setting,” the study said.

On Feb. 21, as quarantined passengers were still trying to get off the Diamond Princess, Diane and Steve Houghton of Pleasant Hill, Calif., were eagerly boarding a sister ship, the Grand Princess, on the other side of the Pacific Ocean, for a 15-day cruise to Hawaii.

Steve Houghton said the passenger screening in San Francisco was limited. The brief questionnaire handed to passengers as they boarded asked about fever, persistent cough or recent travel to coronavirus hotspots like China.

His document went into a stack along with hundreds of others, Houghton said.

On his form, Houghton wrote that he coughs all the time and has difficult breathing due to chronic asthma. “No one asked any questions. They said not a single word,” he said.

The ship set sail for Hawaii with roughly 3,500 people aboard. As it passed beneath the majestic Golden Gate Bridge, passengers crammed the decks to take in the view, drinks in hand.

Several days of relaxation and merriment followed, with little or no awareness of the virus’s creep around the world, according to passengers interviewed by The Post.

“We never thought coronavirus was in America. We never dreamt of it,” said 65-year-old Howard Lewis of Wales, who said he and his wife met couples aboard who had booked the cruise to Hawaii after canceling trips to Asia.

What they didn’t know: the day before, as the ship’s previous voyage to Mexico was winding down, a passenger came into the medical center “with a six to seven day history of symptoms of acute respiratory illness,” Grant Tarling, Carnival’s chief medical officer, said in a call with reporters two weeks later.

Crew members and 62 passengers who had possibly interacted with that guest on the earlier trip remained aboard for the cruise to Hawaii, according to the cruise line.

© Chief Master Sgt. Seth Zweben/California National Guard/Associated Press Medical personnel work with CDC officials aboard the Grand Princess off the coast of California on March 5.

Frizzell, the Carnival executive, said Princess Cruises was not aware that the passenger had been hospitalized until days after the cruise had departed. Guests had been given “a general health notice with their boarding materials as additional precaution for coronavirus as part of our company’s enhanced safety and health protocol,” he said.

On March 3, health officials in Placer County, Calif., announced the former passenger had tested positive for coronavirus.

The following morning, the Grand Princess issued a “health advisory letter” to guests that said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was investigating a “small cluster of COVID-19 (coronavirus) cases in Northern California connected to our previous Grand Princess voyage.”

The notice said the ship was skipping a stop in Mexico and heading directly back to San Francisco. The passengers who had gone on the previous voyage were asked to retreat to their cabins until cleared by medical staff.

The coronavinus-infected former passenger died that day, becoming the state’s first fatality from the virus. California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) declared a state of emergency.

But the vast majority of the approximately 2,400 Grand Princess passengers were not quarantined in their cabins until the afternoon of March 5.

Health experts say cruise ships are fertile ground for infectious diseases because they pack thousands of people into close quarters for days at a time, encouraging them to eat and socialize together. Cruises also cater to the elderly, who are particularly vulnerable.

Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease doctor who serves as senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security, said that the positive test on March 3 should have led to a more serious response.

“The confirmed case should have triggered social distancing measures at that point,” Adalja said. “Because of the high consequences of this infectious disease and attention to it in light of what happened with the Diamond Princess in Japan, they really should have been prepared for what could happen.”

Frizzell said passengers “were alerted within hours” about the positive coronavirus test.

“Upon being alerted of the issue, the Grand Princess looked closely to the CDC and health officials for direction,” he added.

© Noah Berger/AP Health officials in California announced a former Grand Princess passenger had tested positive for coronavirus on March 3. The following morning, the ship issued a “health advisory letter” to guests. It wasn’t until the afternoon of March 5 that passengers were quarantined in their cabins.

Passengers said performances and activities were canceled on the evening of March 4 and the following morning, but they continued to mingle at the bar and move freely around the ship.

The buffet was still open at about 1:45 p.m. on March 5, according to Keane Li of San Francisco, who was keeping close tabs on his parents on the ship and posting updates to Twitter.

“Given what happened on the Diamond Princess, there should’ve been a contingency plan for this,” said Li, whose father, Wai Li, was diagnosed with covid-19 after disembarking the ship last week. “I get that they didn’t want to scare anyone, but they should’ve acted sooner.”

Kailee Higgins Ott, a high school junior from the Bay Area, said she was eating lunch in the main dining room on March 5 when the captain announced that people needed to stay six feet away from each other and then retreat to their staterooms.

“I mean, when he said social distancing, everyone like started to laugh because we were sitting in a dining room and obviously we couldn’t be six feet away from everyone,” she said.

On March 6, Captain John Harry Smith assured passengers he would keep them informed, according to announcements shared by a passenger with The Washington Post. An update came later that day, but not from the captain.

In a news conference at the White House that afternoon, Pence said that 46 people had been tested from among the more than 3,500 people on board. Among them, 21 had tested positive, 19 of them crew members.

© Noah Berger/AP Passengers aboard the Grand Princess celebrate as they arrive in Oakland, Calif., on March 9.

Passengers learned there were confirmed coronavirus cases on board at the same time the public did. Smith came back on the loudspeaker.

“We apologize, but we were not given advance notice of this announcement by the U.S. federal government,” the captain said. “It would have been our preference to be the first to make this news available to you.”

Carolyn Wright, 63-year-old from Santa Fe, said, she was “hearing things on the news that were affecting us directly that were never communicated to the passengers being affected. It was the most frustrating, helpless feeling.”

“When all control over your personal life is taken from you and you're not even told what's going to happen to you or why or anything, the stress level is incalculable,” she added.

After Pence’s announcement, Carnival relaxed its policies to allow guests to cancel or postpone cruises because of potential worries about coronavirus.

The Grand Princess used a stricter protocol for distributing food and fresh towels to quarantined passengers than the Diamond Princess, which had allowed crew members wearing masks and gloves to make deliveries in person. On the Grand Princess, passengers said they were asked to wear masks when they opened their doors to retrieve meals left on the floor and said they never saw crew members.

“The stewards, the ones that came and delivered things to you, they all had their masks on,” said Amy Horowitz, a New Yorker celebrating her 59th birthday on the ship with family. “They would just bang on your door to let you know they left something at your door and run away as fast as you could.”

© Kate Munsch/Reuters Grand Princess passengers wait to board a chartered flight at Oakland International Airport in California on March 11.

On March 9, the ship was allowed to dock in Oakland. Lewis and his wife flew home to Wales, as did other passengers from around the world, while the American passengers were sent to military bases for quarantine.

As of Thursday, more than 870 evacuees from the ship who were taken to four U.S. military bases had been tested, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. Another 674 had declined to be tested.

Including passengers and crew who were tested while still aboard the ship, U.S. officials said they were aware of 40 people from the Grand Princess who have so far tested positive for the coronavirus, a number that is expected to increase in the coming days, according to an HHS spokeswoman.

Houghton said he and his wife have been feeling fine and have declined testing while confined to Travis Air Force Base, stewing about the cruise line’s handling of the situation.

“Princess Cruise Lines filling our ship and sailing with sick people on board was unforgivable,” he said.

Other passengers from around the world who chose to be tested are now learning their results. In Wales, Lewis and his wife found out last weekend that they were infected.

“With hindsight I suppose you could say they should have quarantined us earlier, though I am not sure it would have made a difference,” Lewis said. “People will learn a lot from this hopefully.”

Seeking a port

© Daniel Cole/AP The Costa Luminosa arrives in Marseille, France, on Thursday after a journey across the Atlantic Ocean.

On March 5, the same day that Grand Princess passengers were being quarantined to their rooms, another cruise ship, the Costa Luminosa, set sail from Fort Lauderdale, on an itinerary through the Caribbean and onto Europe. The ship carried 1,400 passengers, including 233 Americans.

Ecker, 41, said her parents Jeffrey and Kathryn Bitner were nervous about going on the trip. But she said they were assured by cruise authorities that there was no need for concern — and also warned that they would not be reimbursed if they canceled.

“So they believed them,” she said, “and they left.”

Passengers did not know that during a previous voyage of the Costa Luminosa, an Italian man had complained of heart trouble and was taken off the ship in the Cayman Islands on Feb. 29, according to Carnival-owned Costa Cruises, which operates the ship. He later tested positive for the coronavirus and died.

On the current voyage, an Italian woman disembarked March 8 in Puerto Rico complaining of breathing troubles and then tested positive for the virus. So did her husband traveling with her, the company has since said.

While it awaited test results, the cruise line did not initially tell passengers about the sick woman who got off the ship, even though she was hospitalized, relatives of current passengers said.

Instead, the ship continued toward its next port-of-call, Antigua. After authorities there denied the ship docking because of the ill woman who had disembarked in Puerto Rico, it headed out for the multiday trip across the Atlantic Ocean.

Only then, on March 9, were passengers told about the sick woman, according to a letter delivered on board, a copy of which was obtained by The Post.

© Chris S via Reuters A view of the interior of the Costa Luminosa on Thursday.

Those aboard the ship continued to mingle and eat communally. By the time the Costa Luminosa reached the Canary Islands, off the coast of northwest Africa, three more passengers had coronavirus-like symptoms. They were allowed to disembark, but the Spanish government would not allow others to come ashore because Spain has closed its ports, the company said.

On March 13, the cruise company said it was told that the Italian man on the ship’s previous voyage had tested positive. The following day, March 14, it learned that the woman hospitalized in Puerto Rico and her husband also had tested positive.

One more day passed before passengers were isolated in their rooms, according to people aboard. A full week had passed since the sick woman disembarked in Puerto Rico.

“Other measures had already been implemented in the days before, including isolation of the close contacts of the suspect cases and the cancellation of several on board activities,” Rossella Carrara, a Costa Cruises vice president, said in an email.

“The health and safety of guests, crew member and of the destinations is of the utmost importance,” she added.

By the time the ship docked in Marseille early Thursday morning, five passengers and two crew members had flu-like symptoms, the company said. After French health authorities came aboard to do health checks, 386 passengers disembarked, most of them French, Canadian and U.S. citizens, the company said.

A chartered airplane carrying U.S. citizens landed in Atlanta on Friday morning, where additional health screenings were expected to take place. According to passengers, some were coughing during the trans-Atlantic flight.
Clearance to disembark

© Lynne Sladky/AP The MSC Meraviglia, right, was docked in Miami this week. As the ship was underway on a cruise last week, the cruise line learned that a passenger on the previous journey had tested positive for the virus.

On March 8, the State Department and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned U.S. citizens, particularly those with medical issues, not to travel by cruise ship. The move panicked industry officials, who scrambled to pull together an action plan and get ahead of further government action, according to people familiar with the situation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private discussions.

Around 6 p.m. that day, the MSC Meraviglia pulled out of Miami for a scheduled eight-day cruise to the Caribbean.

Four days later, the MSC cruise line was informed by Canadian authorities that a passenger on the ship’s previous journey had tested positive for the coronavirus, according to the cruise line. Some crew members and guests who had traveled with that passenger had remained on board for the subsequent voyage.

Passengers received notices the next day that seven crew members who may have been in contact with the virus-infected former guest were quarantined, according to a copy reviewed by The Post. It did not mention possible contact with other passengers.

The ship continued, making a stop Saturday at an MSC-owned island in the Bahamas.

Jeffrey Cleary, 55, said passengers had their temperatures taken before reboarding the ship. But when they arrived back in Miami on Sunday, no one checked their temperatures, he said.

Nearly 3,900 passengers streamed off the ship — many headed to the airport to fly to homes around the world.

“Not one piece of screening was done,” Cleary said. “Off we went.”

© Florent Serfari/Reuters A passenger who returned from a cruise aboard the MSC Meraviglia on Sunday said passengers’ temperatures were checked after an island visit but not as passengers streamed off the ship at the end of the cruise.

The cruise line had been carefully monitoring the health of crew and passengers, and none were experiencing symptoms associated with covid-19 as the cruise ended, according to the company.

“The ship received clearance from the CDC and [the United States Coast Guard] on Sunday, March 15 after they reviewed all the necessary documentation regarding the health of passengers and crew on board on Sunday and throughout the cruise,” the company said in a statement.

CDC spokeswoman Kristen Nordlund said the federal agency had been aware of the positive test before the ship was allowed to dock and responded by sending a notice to local health departments to alert them to the “medium risk” posed by the disembarked passengers.

“As the situation in the United States changes, both with increasing COVID-19 cases and the number of cruise ships coming in to port over the next few days, CDC is continuing to reevaluate how we approach returning cruise ships,” Nordlund said.

Thousands of cruise ship passengers are now slated to return home in the coming days from ships whose voyages began before the industry’s temporary halt.

Many of those that remain at sea have had difficulty finding countries that will allow them to dock, even those with no identified cases aboard.

The Norwegian Jewel, for instance, which departed Sydney on Feb. 28, had been sailing toward Honolulu after being prevented from docking in several South Pacific ports.

Marilee Perkal, whose daughter and son-in-law are on board, said they have been told there are no signs of passengers with symptoms. She said that her daughter recently sent a photo of her and her husband lounging by the pool.

As a precaution, her daughter told her, the ship has had no buffets since the start of its cruise. Guests are not even allowed to touch the salad dressing bottles. “That has been a comfort,” she said.

On Wednesday, however, Hawaii announced that no additional cruise ships will be allowed to dock. Passengers had not yet been informed of a new plan for disembarking, Perkal said.

Tom Hamburger, Julie Tate, Hannah Sampson and Jonathan O’Connell contributed to this report.