March 8 coronavirus news

The first case of the novel coronavirus in the Memphis area was announced today by Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris. This is the second case confirmed in Tennessee.

Shelby County Health Department officials said the individual "traveled out of state recently," but would not provide additional details.

The individual tested positive for coronavirus yesterday and the specimen will now be tested by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to state health officials. This presumptive positive case comes a few days after the first case of coronavirus was identified in Williamson County. 

"We're taking this situation very seriously," Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland said.

Strickland has been communicating with the governor and state health officials regarding this case. All city facilities will be sanitized daily, Strickland said. The risk to the community is low, county officials said. 

The United Kingdom has recorded 67 new coronavirus cases, bringing its total to 273.

The figures were released by the UK’s Department of Health and Social Care and are current as of 9 a.m. local time (5 a.m. ET) Sunday.

Two people in the UK have died from the virus.

Finland’s army says it will no longer participate in a joint military exercise being led by the Norwegian armed forces because of coronavirus concerns.

About 400 Finish personnel were due to travel to Norway for Cold Response 2020 training.

There are 470 cases of the novel coronavirus in the United States, according to the state and local health agencies, governments and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

According to the CDC there are 49 cases from repatriated citizens from Wuhan (3) and the Diamond Princess (46). Twenty-one cases are from the Grand Princess.

According to CNN Health’s tally of US cases that are detected and tested in the United States through US public health systems, there are 400 in 32 states and the District of Columbia, bringing the total number of coronavirus cases to 470.

This figure includes presumptive positive cases that tested positive in a public health lab and are pending confirmation from the CDC, and confirmed cases have received positive results from the CDC.

The number of coronavirus cases in the Czech Republic has risen to 28, the country’s Health Minister Adam Vojtech said Sunday.

That’s an increase of seven since Saturday.

Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams told Jake Tapper on CNN’s “State of the Union” today that he thinks the outbreak of the coronavirus is being contained in certain areas. 

This claim comes as the number of cases has risen to more than 440 in the US. There have been 19 deaths and cases now span 32 states and the District of Columbia.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said the passengers aboard the Grand Princess cruise ship, currently off the coast of California, should “absolutely not” be left on the ship. Fauci made those comments on “Fox News Sunday.”

Late last week: On Friday, the President said he did not want the passengers getting off the ship but did say he was leaving the final decision up to his advisers.

The US Department of Health and Human Services announced today that the passengers will be transferred to federal military installations after the ship docks Monday.

Sixteen new cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced this morning.

This update brings the total number of state-wide cases to 105.

Here is the breakdown of cases across the state:

Passengers on the Grand Princess cruise ship will be transferred to federal military installations for medical screening, novel coronavirus testing and a 14-day quarantine, after the ship docks temporarily in a non-passenger port in San Francisco Bay tomorrow, according to the US Department of Health and Human Services. 

Nearly 1,000 passengers who are California residents will complete the mandatory quarantine at Travis Air Force Base and Miramar Naval Air Station, and residents of other states will complete the mandatory quarantine at Joint Base San Antonio Lackland in Texas or Dobbins Air Force Base in Georgia, the Department of Health and Human Services says. 

Additionally, the Department of State is working closely with the home countries of several hundred passengers to arrange for repatriation to their home countries.

At least three US nationals tested positive for coronavirus after boarding an infected Nile cruise in Egypt, according to one infected passenger Matt Swider.

There were 26 other Americans on board the cruise traveling from Aswan to Luxor, Swider added. 

Swider, a tech journalist from New York City, is currently in quarantine in a hospital in the Egyptian coastal city of Marsa Matrouh after testing positive for coronavirus himself.