WASHINGTON (CBS/CNN) — The House of Representatives passed a bipartisan legislative financial relief package in the early hours of Saturday morning following intense negotiations between House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Trump administration.

The bill passed with broad, bipartisan support and a final tally of 363-40 with 40 Republicans voting against it and Independent Justin Amash of Michigan voting “present.”

“We are proud to have reached an agreement with the administration to resolve outstanding challenges, and now will soon pass the Families First Coronavirus Response Act,” Pelosi said in a letter to colleagues.

Late in the day on Friday, President Trump Donald tweeted his support for the measure that includes provisions for paid emergency leave and free testing for COVID-19, after Pelosi announced that Democrats had struck a deal with the administration.

Trump’s backing cleared the way for a broad, bipartisan vote in the House with the Senate expected to take up the measure when it returns to session next week.

In a series of tweets, the President said, “I fully support H.R. 6201: Families First CoronaVirus Response Act, which will be voted on in the House this evening.”

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“This Bill will follow my direction for free CoronaVirus tests, and paid sick leave for our impacted American workers. I have directed the Secretary of the Treasury and the Secretary of Labor to issue regulations that will provide flexibility so that in no way will Small Businesses be hurt. I encourage all Republicans and Democrats to come together and VOTE YES!”

The announcement from the President put an end to uncertainty that had loomed over negotiations all day.

Despite the announcement of an agreement, however, the White House and Pelosi’s office were still sorting out issues into Friday evening with the legislative language, according to House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer.

Pelosi said in her letter that the legislation is made up of a number of provisions, including “free coronavirus testing for everyone who needs a test, including the uninsured.”

The legislation will also provide, according to Pelosi, “paid emergency leave with two weeks of paid sick leave and up to three months of paid family and medical leave.”

It will also expand federal funding for Medicaid “to support our local, state, tribal and territorial governments and health systems, so that they have the resources necessary to combat this crisis.”

House Democrats had been planning to vote Friday on a coronavirus relief measure with or without bipartisan support amid uncertainty over when exactly the vote will happen and whether the Trump administration will ultimately get behind the bill.

Trump earlier criticized the legislative package during a news conference on Friday afternoon from the White House even as Pelosi and Mnuchin continued to negotiate.

In remarks delivered from the US Capitol roughly an hour before the President publicly expressed his dissatisfaction, Pelosi insisted that the House of Representatives will move to pass the legislation, saying definitively, “Today, we are passing a bill.” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer echoed that priority in a letter to House Democrats saying that the House would vote on a relief bill one way or another.

“The speaker has literally been working around the clock to achieve a bipartisan agreement on our further response to the crisis caused by the Coronavirus pandemic,” the Maryland Democrat said. “If we reach agreement, we’ll vote on it. If not, we will vote today on our bill, which incorporates nearly all of what the Administration and Republicans have requested.”

The House has been gearing up for a vote after top negotiators spent the past day in discussions over how to reach a consensus agreement between House Democrats and the Trump administration.

The concern over coronavirus has scrambled leaders to try and pass a comprehensive package that would address paid sick leave and expand the social safety net for vulnerable children and families whose lives may be disrupted by the virus.

The effort comes as concern and anxiety mounts over the rapid spread of coronavirus across the United States — a development that has jolted the financial markets.

Throughout the day on Friday, however, uncertainty over whether the President would ultimately get behind the legislative package complicated negotiations.

During a Friday afternoon press conference, however, Trump did not say he would support the legislation.

“Well, we just don’t think they’re giving enough. We don’t think the Democrats are giving enough,” the President said.

“We’re negotiating. We thought we had something, but all of a sudden they didn’t agree to certain things that they agreed to. We could have something but we don’t think they’re giving enough. They’re not doing what’s right for the country.”

Meanwhile, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy convened a last-minute conference call with his members, walking them through remaining sticking points even as he remained upbeat a deal could still be clinched over the upcoming hours.

The California Republican told members that there were plenty of good things in the bill — particularly on the testing elements, which have strong GOP support. But McCarthy also addressed that there were some glaring technical mistakes, and that the GOP wanted to do more to ensure concerns about supporting small business jobs were addressed.

Congress passed an $8.3 billion total coronavirus response package last week, but there is a strong sense among lawmakers that more needed to be done to respond to the economic fallout from the spread of the virus.

© Copyright 2020 CNN. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) — Fears over data security, government misuse of personal information and the COVID-19 virus are all shaping up to put a damper on the 2020 U.S. Census.

Those were some of the concerns raised in a national conference call Friday with representatives of several nonprofit organizations working to help the U.S. Census Bureau count as many people living in the United States as possible.

On Thursday, invitations went out to nearly 150 million American households asking for participation in the census.

But the drive to ensure a full count is being seriously tested by many communities’ distrust of the federal government and the rapidly spreading effects of the novel coronavirus, or COVID-19.

Over the past several days, response to the growing pandemic has included the shuttering of schools, limitations on public access to government offices, the suspension of professional sports seasons and wide-spread “social distancing” by individuals.

Fear over contracting the virus could damage the Census Bureau’s efforts to hire the 500,000 enumerators it needs to go out and physically contact as many U.S. residents as possible in an effort to encourage their participation in the count, according to Jeri Green, the 2020 Census senior advisor for the National Urban League.

“In a lot of our communities, especially in the black community, a significant number of our community waits for that knock on the door,” Green said, referring to the house-by-house contacts made by census enumerators.

Green said the Census Bureau is already behind in its hiring efforts and worries that potential new hires will be scared off by concerns over the virus.

To try to mitigate this, the National Urban League and other groups working to encourage census participation are pushing people to “self-respond” by filling out the forms before anyone needs to come knocking.

Given that this is the first U.S. Census to prioritize online participation, many people missed by enumerators will have the chance to make sure they are counted remotely.

Communities without access to computers or broadband internet services, however, are in serious danger of an undercount.

This is particularly true for many Native American populations, said Lycia Maddox, vice president of external affairs at the National Congress of American Indians.

“The online form creates a big barrier in Indian Country,” Maddox said, adding that some tribal groups are buying laptops and physically bringing them to people who would otherwise likely go uncounted.

The lack of online access is compounded by the fact that many tribal nations are responding to the virus by severely restricting who is allowed onto their territories.

“Some nations actually have physical guard stands where they check if you’re a tribal citizen and if you’re not, they will ask you to not enter,” Maddox said.

John Yang, president and executive director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice, said that some companies are looking into providing free wireless hotspots and that Comcast recently announced that it will be expanding its program to bring internet services to low-income households and increasing the bandwidth of its broadband services in an effort to cope with the expected demand prompted by the virus, which has resulted in huge numbers of people working and attending classes from home.

“There is still a lot of groundwork to be done,” Yang added.

Also, many grass-roots organizations involved in public awareness campaigns focused on the census are shifting their focus from face-to-face contacts to phone banking, group texting and distributing informational materials to super markets, community centers and health clinics, Yang said.

“In person opportunities are becoming restricted and we all want to exercise caution,” he said.

The virus and the response to it have only exacerbated long-standing barriers to full census participation, especially among immigrants and in communities of color, which are among the country’s hardest to count populations.

These groups have historically cast a wary eye towards the federal government and are reluctant to provide even the most basic personal information for fear that it will somehow be used against them.

It’s a fear that has intensified in recent years over what many see as vitriolic anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies espoused by the Trump Administration.

To combat this distrust, many community groups are trying to hammer home the message that any information provided to the U.S. Census Bureau is protected by law and can only be used in statistical analysis that, among other things, helps the government decided where to allocate $1.5 trillion in federal spending and how to determine the number of congressional representatives that should be apportioned to each state.

“Our number one priority has been to ensure that our communities understand that their data is safe and confidential and that it can’t be shared with law enforcement or any other government agency,” Green said.

OAKLAND (CBS SF) — Alameda County health officials confirmed four new positive cases of coronavirus on Friday, two of which are the first reported incidences of community transmission in the county.

The county now has a total of seven cases as of Friday afternoon, the Alameda County Public Health Department said. The remaining two out of the four cases confirmed on Friday were linked to other confirmed COVID-19 cases.

The county will not be sharing any other information about the new cases to protect medical privacy.

COMPLETE COVERAGE: CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK

The last reported case in the county came on March 6. It was a passenger from the coronavirus-stricken Grand Princess cruise ship that traveled to Mexico.

Also on Friday, ACPHD said it will comply with the California Dept. of Public Health’s mass gathering guidelines by prohibiting gatherings of over 250 people at the Alameda County Fairgrounds.

All non-essential gatherings of 250 people or more are recommended to be canceled or postponed, both by the county and the state of California. County health officials also emphasize social distancing by leaving at least six feet in between each person in gatherings inside confined spaces.

“Taking these additional preventive measures now will help us reduce the number of people who get sick, and avoid prolonged adverse impacts on our health care system, workforce, and communities,” said county health officer Dr. Erica Pan.

“We have the opportunity to slow down this pandemic and decrease its impact by reducing the spread of virus from person-to-person. This means substantially limiting the number of individuals and places that people come together.”

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF/AP) — As the number of confirmed coronavirus cases grew by the hours in Northern California, President Donald Trump announced Friday that he is declaring the coronavirus pandemic a national emergency.

Just over the last six hours, four new cases have been confirmed in Alameda County, the first two by community spread, and over the last week cases in Santa Clara County have gone up three fold to 79.

Dr. Sara Cody, the Santa Clara County’s director of public health, said at a Friday news of the 79 cases, 37 people are hospitalized, and 43 cases were contracted from community transmission, not travel. The county reported its first death on Monday.

“Based on these data and patterns of disease that we see around the world, we know that the outbreak of COVID-19 in our county will continue to accelerate and we anticipate many, many more cases in the days and weeks to come.”

Speaking from the Rose Garden, Trump said, “I am officially declaring a national emergency.”

He said it would free up as much as $50 billion for state and local governments to respond to the outbreak. Trump also waived interest on federally held student loans and moved to prop up energy markets, by directing the Department of Energy to buy oil to fill the strategic petroleum reserve “’right up to the top.”

Trump said he was also giving Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar emergency authorities to waive federal regulations and laws to give doctors and hospitals “flexibility” in treating patients.

“Through a very collective action and shared sacrifice, national determination, we will overcome the threat of the virus,” Trump said.

He also announced a new public-private partnership to expand coronavirus testing capabilities, as his administration has come under fire for being too slow in making the test available. Trump said, “I don’t take responsibility at all” for the slow roll-out of testing.

The partnership will include drive-thru testing in some locations and an online portal to screen those seeking to get tested.

Still, Trump said that officials don’t want people taking the test unless they have certain symptoms. “It’s totally unnecessary,” Trump said. He added, “This will pass.”

Trump said the White House and Congress have yet to agree on a broader aid package, claiming that he doesn’t believe House Democrats are “giving enough.” Lawmakers are preparing to vote on their own measure Friday.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Friday the House would approve its coronavirus aid package, imploring the Trump administration and congressional Republicans to “put families first” by backing the effort to provide Americans with relief.

The House Democratic leader spoke from the speaker’s balcony at the Capitol ahead of Trump’s news conference at the White House, as the power centers of Washington were shuttered to visitors.

“Our nation, our great nation has faced crisis before,” Pelosi said. “And every time, thanks to the courage and optimism of the American people, we have prevailed. Now, working together, we will once again prevail.”

Trump has not yet publicly backed the package, making its outcome uncertain in Congress.

Central to the package is free testing for the virus and guaranteed sick pay for workers who are taking time away from jobs, along with an infusion of dollars to handle unemployment benefits and boost food programs for children, families and seniors.

Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, whom Trump tapped to negotiate for the administration, have engaged in around-the-clock negotiations.

But Republican leaders in Congress slowed the deal, wanting assurances that Trump would publicly support the agreement before signing off on it ahead of any vote, according to a top congressional aide unauthorized to discuss the private talks and speaking on condition of anonymity.

GOP leader Kevin McCarthy of California, the House minority leader, huddled with Mnuchin and Trump at the White House earlier Friday.

“We can only defeat this outbreak if we have an accurate determination of its scale and scope, so that we can pursue the precise science-based response that is necessary to put families first,” Pelosi said.

The White House is under enormous pressure, dealing with the crisis on multiple fronts as it encroached ever closer on the president.

The virus has swept in alarming ways across American life, sending the financial markets into a dangerous slide and shuttering schools and sporting events and limiting everyday interactions in communities across the country.

The administration’s federal task force managing the crisis was working furiously to break a bottleneck in the nation’s ability to test for the new virus, and weighing what sort of emergency powers Trump would need to invoke to provide needed aid to overwhelmed state and local governments.

And a personal health scare intensified as White House officials worked to determine the level of exposure by the president and senior aides to several foreign officials who have since tested positive for the virus.

Trump said he was gratified that Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro tested negative for the virus, after the pair sat next to each other for an extended period of time last weekend. A senior aide to Bolsonaro tested positive. “We have no symptoms whatsoever,” said Trump, who has not gotten tested for the virus or taken steps to self-isolate.

In one welcome announcement, the administration said Friday it was awarding $1.3 million to two companies trying to develop rapid COVID-19 tests that could detect within an hour whether a person is positive for the new coronavirus.

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. According to the World Health Organization, people with mild illness recover in about two weeks, while those with more severe illness may take three to six weeks to be over it.

© Copyright 2020 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE (CBS Sacramento) — People inside the Travis Air Force Base Coronavirus quarantine are describing a poorly-planned operation they call “Camp Corona.”

Robert Archer, 65, and Robert Graham, 61, are two of the 800 people quarantined at Westwind Inn on Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield. Asked how they would describe what they were going through right now, and they both picked the same word — “hell.”

“We’re surrounded by chainlink fences and there’s armed guards outside,” Graham said.

COMPLETE COVERAGE: CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK

Besides describing stark surroundings, the pair also described a scene inside with little regard for isolation. Photos show the quarantined passengers sharing common space, lining up together for food and drinks, and sitting at tables in close quarters.

READ MORE on CBS Sacramento

SACRAMENTO (CBS SF) — Gov. Gavin Newsom bemoaned the current status of lab testing for coronavirus as he gave an update of COVID-19 cases in the state Thursday.

At a press conference in Sacramento Thursday morning, Newsom said 198 people in the state have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, 21 more that the previous day’s total.

A fourth death from the virus was reported in the Los Angeles area, said Newsom.

As far as testing, Newsom said 1,573 tests have been completed and the state currently has the ability to perform 8,227 tests, with 18 state labs now performing tests as well as one private lab and four hospitals across the state.

As the testing has continued to develop among the various locations, it’s been discovered that many of the testing kits provided by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are missing the key components to conducts the analyses.

“The test kits do not include in every case the RNA extraction kits, the reagents, the chemicals, the solutions that are components of the broader tests. This is imperative that the federal government and labs across the United States, not just state of California, get the benefit of all the ingredients, the components of the test. I am surprised this is not more of the national conversation,” said Newsom. “I think it’s very much in line with your going to the store and purchasing a printer but forgetting to purchase the ink.”

The missing components were used to extract genetic material from the nasal and cheek swabs gathered from people being tested. The demand for the reagents has been exacerbating the backlog on the testing.

Newsom said the state was helping provide some of the missing components to state labs, while commercial labs and private hospitals were also helping fulfill the shortages of components. Newsom said Quest Diagnostics was expected to open two new labs by the end of the month, the three labs would be able to process more than 5,000 tests a day.

By contrast, South Korea has tested more than 230,000 people and has developed the ability to test 15,000 people a day.

The state was also working to set up centralized testing sites by next week which would allow many more people around the state to be tested in a system coordinated with the state’s private and public partners.

“They are improving but there are still challenges,” said Newsom. “We need to own up to that and we need to be forthright and honest to what those are.”

Mass gatherings: No more than 250

Newsom signed an order limiting non-essential gatherings in the state to no more that 250 people, larger events should be canceled or postponed until at least the end of March. Newsom’s order supersedes the guidance from the White House COVID-19 Task Force issued Wednesday for Santa Clara County and three counties in Washington state.

The governor said the order would affect Major League Baseball season openers in California and he expects similar limits on mass gatherings to extend to other parts of the country.

The ban on non-essential gatherings currently does not include casinos, card rooms, theaters and large amusement parks such as Disneyland, but that discussions on those type of spaces were underway.

“The complexity of their unique circumstances requires additional conversation, different kind of engagement,” said Newsom. “I assure you we are moving quickly toward a resolution in those spaces … They raise enough legitimate concerns and questions in the short run that we found it appropriate to exclude them from this general order today and advance those conversations with earnest later this afternoon and hopefully have some clarity and guidelines in the very immediate future in terms of those venues.”

Grand Princess update

The process to remove passengers from the Grand Princess cruise ship docked in Oakland was expected to be finished by the end of the day.

Newsom said 1,963 people have been taken off the boat as of last night, with 511 passengers removed Wednesday. An additional 476, mostly foreign passengers are expected to be removed Thusday.

Most of the 1,075 crew members will be quarantined on the ship. A handful of crew members have already left the U.S. on repatriated flights.

There were three flights scheduled with cruise ship evacuees destined for Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego and one flight to Dobbins Air Reserve Base in Georgia.

Newsom said Lackland Air Force Base in Texas was only accepting cruise ship passengers from Texas and no other U.S. citizens. “That’s disappointing. Folks in Georgia are doing more and the people, of course, of the state of California have always done more,” said Newsom. “That has not helped in our logistics, to be candid with you. But it is what it is.”

Newsom said eight people remain hospitalized after removal from the ship out of 36 people originally sent to hospitals.

Aside from a handful of state parks and a 120-room hotel in San Carlos, Newsom said the state is looking to secure additional assets such as state lands, fairgrounds and  armories to house quarantined passengers.

OAKLAND (CBS SF) — Jurors reached a guilty verdict Tuesday in the case against John Lee Cowell, who was accused of fatally stabbing Nia Wilson on the platform of the MacArthur BART station in Oakland on July 22, 2018.

The verdict was read shortly before 5 p.m. Tuesday. The Alameda County District Attorney confirmed the guilty verdict to KPIX 5.

The jury came to a quick decision, finding Cowell guilty on charges of murder and attempted murder after only a couple hours of deliberation. The second charge was for the stabbing attack by Cowell on Letifah Wilson, Nia’s sister, who survived.

Depending on the outcome of the trial, Cowell either faces life in prison or he would serve a his sentence at a state mental hospital.

During closing arguments Monday, the prosecutor and defense attorney clashed on furiously over the defendant’s mental state.

But Alameda County prosecutor Butch Ford and defense lawyer Christina Moore agreed on two important things: that Cowell was in fact the person who attacked Wilson and her sister Letifah at the MacArthur station at about 9:35 p.m. on July 22, 2018, and that the key issue in his trial was his state of mind at the time.

Ford told jurors that Cowell, a 29-year-old transient man, should be convicted of first-degree murder and the special circumstance of lying in wait because he believes Cowell knew what he was doing at the time and premeditated the attack.

But Moore said Cowell has been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and said his mind “was completely divorced from reality” at the time.

Tensions ran high throughout the emotionally charged trial. On Monday, at one point Moore asked jurors if they could believe Ford’s allegation that she was a co-conspirator with Cowell to magnify his mental illness. Some members of the gallery, which was packed with Wilson’s family members and friends, called out “yes.”

Moore asked Alameda County Superior Court Judge Allan Hymer to admonish the audience and turned to the spectators and said, “This isn’t about you.”

On the first day of the trial, Cowell was removed from the courtroom following an outburst during the prosecution’s opening remarks. The judge first admonished Cowell for speaking out to defend himself, telling Cowell to keep quiet and ultimately having Cowell removed when he continued.

When Cowell took the witness stand, he told jurors he hears voices from alien technology implanted in his ear in a series of bizarre ramblings.

Cowell sparred with his attorney during her questioning, testifying that he heard voices in his head that came from alien technology implanted in his ear with aliens using a radio to communicate with him.

He also referred to people wearing “fake skin” and “skin suits,” insisting that the Wilson sisters were aliens that were threatening him. Cowell also said the sisters had kidnapped his grandmother and were threatening to hurt her.

Cowell said that the sisters were standing over him on the BART train and staring him down and that attacking them was the only way to save his grandmother.

The case against Cowell, who has a history of mental health problems, moved slowly because Moore has raised questions about his mental competency to stand trial.

Alameda County Superior Court Judge James Cramer suspended the criminal proceedings against Cowell on Dec. 27, 2018, saying there was “substantial evidence” that he was mentally incompetent to stand trial.

But at a hearing last July 17, Cramer reinstated the criminal proceedings against Cowell, based in part on a report by psychiatrist Jason Roof of the University of California at Davis that found Cowell was competent to stand trial.

On Wednesday, a separate sanity phase of the trail will begin. Cowell pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) – The City and County of San Francisco has banned “non-essential group events” at any city-owned facilities for the next two weeks because of concerns about the spread of coronavirus, according to an order Saturday signed by the county’s top health officer.

The “city-owned facilities” covered by this order include City Hall; the Moscone Center, the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, the New Conservatory Theatre; the War Memorial and Performing Arts Center; the Palace of Fine Arts Theatre; the San Francisco Public Library (100 Larkin St.) and Piers 27 and 35.

“This order is issued on the basis of scientific evidence and best practices as currently known and available to protect vulnerable members of the public from avoidable risk of serious illness or death resulting from exposure to coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19),” according to the order signed by Tomas Aragon, health officer with the City and County of San Francisco. “The age, condition and health of a significant portion of the population of the City and County of San Francisco places them at risk for serious health complications, including death, from COVID-19,” coronavirus.

Under this order, the first day public events at city-owned venues can resume is March 20.

“Non-Essential Group Event” is defined as “any congregation of 50 or more people for any social, cultural, entertainment, or other special event or other non-essential purpose where people are not separated by physical space of at least four feet (which is slightly longer than an average arm’s length).”

Such city-owned facilities can otherwise remain open for business during the duration of the order, according to the order.

© Copyright 2020 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Bay City News Service contributed to this report.

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) — The number of Northern California residents and former passengers who contracted the coronavirus on a February cruise to Mexico aboard the Grand Princess grew to at least 13 Saturday with a new cases being reported in Santa Cruz County, Fresno, Florida and involving a special needs school staffer in Chicago.

Meanwhile, Vice President Mike Pence announced on Friday that 19 crew members and two passengers on the current cruise have tested positive for the coronavirus. He said the ship would dock at a “non-commercial port” over the weekend and the more than 2,000 passengers would be allowed to leave the boat.

“We have developed a plan which will be implemented this weekend to bring the ship into a non-commercial port,” Pence said. “All passengers and crew will be tested for the coronavirus. Those that need to be quarantined will be quarantined. Those that require additional medical attention will receive it…We are taking all measures necessary to see to the health of the Americans and those involved on the Grand Princess. And just as importantly to protect the health of the American public and prevent the spread of the disease.”

While the current cruise has raised plenty of concern, local health officials were also dealing with coronavirus-related health issues that have arisen from the ship’s previous round-trip voyage from San Francisco to Mexico on Feb. 11-21.

Hundreds of Northern California residents were on the popular cruise and so far nine have been diagnosed with the virus; at least one former passenger has died.

Among those on the cruise was Margie Hartle, who said when she got off the ship many people were coughing. She can’t understand why all the passengers who were on the ship have not been tested.

“We were ground zero and you have 2500 people walking out — right now in Sacramento, up in the foothills, whatever that might be carriers,” she said. “What is going on…Just for my sanity (I would like to be tested) because I don’t know if I’m a carrier or not.”

Hartle said on her bus ride back to the Sacramento area there were several people coughing.

“I was sitting there and a lot of people were coughing,” the 69-year-old said. “I thought this is kind of unusual because the air conditioning hasn’t been on that long. So I covered my mouth.,..They (the people ill) were my age — 50-plus and up. And I thought — ‘A lot of people are coughing a lot…Why is everyone coughing?'”

Dr. Christopher Braden, Deputy Director of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said there was “a cluster” of potential coronavirus patients from that voyage.

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• Lowell High School In San Francisco Closed Due To Coronavirus Exposure

COMPLETE COVERAGE: CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK

“There are a number of other people who have been identified with some type of symptoms that are undergoing testing now,” he said at a news conference earlier this week, announcing the death of the 71-year-old adult male Rocklin resident who had been on the boat. “That information will be updated as we know more.”

“There is a cluster of illness associated with the cruise,” he continued, adding that investigators from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were attempting to track all the passengers on the ill-fated cruise.

On Saturday, health officials announced a woman who works closely with “medically fragile” special needs students at a Chicago Public School has tested positive for the coronavirus. She had recently traveled on the Grand Princess cruise ship.

She is a special education classroom assistant at Vaughn Occupational High School in Chicago, which serves children with special needs, who “are medically fragile,” CPS CEO, Dr, Janice Jackson said. Classes were canceled at the school next week and the building will be sterlized, officials said.

RELATED: /b>More On the Chicago coronavirus Grand Princess case