Cruise ship testing adds to anxieties

Novel coronavirus test results were expected on Friday for some passengers and crew aboard a cruise ship held off the California coast, as tech firms in Seattle－a new focal point for the epidemic－encouraged employees to work remotely in an effort to contain the outbreak.

Off the coast of San Francisco, the Grand Princess lay at anchor on Thursday after a traveler from a previous voyage died of the disease and at least four others became infected. While the more than 3,500 aboard the 290-meter vessel were ordered to stay at sea as officials scrambled to keep the virus at bay, only 45 were identified for testing, Princess Cruises said in a statement.

"The ship will not come on shore until we appropriately assess the passengers," California Governor Gavin Newsom said.

Mary Ellen Carroll, executive director of San Francisco's Department of Emergency Management, said: "Once we have results from the tests, the authorities will determine the best location for the ship to berth."

A military helicopter lowered by rope and later retrieved the test kits on Thursday, bound for a lab in Richmond, California, authorities said.

Michele Smith, a Grand Princess passenger, posted video of the helicopter on Facebook. Another video shows a crew member wearing gloves and a mask and spraying and wiping a handrail.

"We have crews constantly cleaning our ship," Smith is heard saying.

Ten of the 12 US fatalities from the outbreak have been in Washington state, leading to an emergency declaration by the northwestern state and proactive measures in the community where tech plays a major role in the economy. The number of infections in the United States on Thursday surpassed 200, scattered across 18 states. Colorado and Nevada reported their first cases.

Online retail and cloud computing colossus Amazon, which has transformed the northwestern US city with its urban campus, has given its more than 50,000 employees in the region the green light to work remotely.

Amazon this past week confirmed that an employee in Seattle had been quarantined after testing positive for the new coronavirus. Workers known to have been in close contact with the ill employee were notified.

Facebook and Google, which have been steadily expanding operations in Seattle, are also encouraging workers in the state of Washington to stay away from the office to reduce risks amid a global outbreak that has killed more than 3,000 people and led to the closures of schools and factories in some countries.

$8.3b spending bill

US lawmakers passed an emergency $8.3 billion spending bill to combat the coronavirus on Thursday. The Senate gave sweeping bipartisan support to the funding one day after the House of Representatives passed the bill, so that it could be quickly sent to the White House for US President Donald Trump's signature.

Coronavirus deaths at a nursing home in the Seattle suburbs have heightened concerns in the area, where aerospace giant Boeing has major operations. Nine of the 12 dead in the US were from the same nursing home, now under federal investigation. Boeing said its facilities in that area remain open, and there has been no crimps to airplane production.

On the other side of the country, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio implored the federal government to send more test kits to his state, which saw its caseload double on Thursday to 22－all of them in or near the city.

Two new cases－involving a man in his 40s and a woman in her 80s－were confirmed on Thursday. Both patients have been hospitalized in intensive care. Neither of the patients traveled to an infected area or had contact with others known to have been infected, meaning their infections could be from "community spread", the cause of which is unknown.

New York City is home to 8.6 million people. It has the largest subway system in the world with 472 stations that operate around the clock. At least 5.6 million people take the subway daily on weekdays.

The city this past week began a widespread campaign of disinfecting buses, subways and trains that go to and from the city's suburbs. Commonly touched surfaces, including turnstiles, ticket and vending machines, and handrails are being disinfected daily. authorities said.

Ai Heping and Belinda Robinson in New York contributed to this story.