Trump, Congress to discuss economic relief package amid coronavirus panic in stock market

Kari Kolstoe, a passenger on the Grand Princess, was among those who got off Monday after an uncertain wait.

Her situation was particularly fraught because Kolstoe, 60, said she has Stage 4 neuroendocrine cancer and was originally supposed to be back in Grand Forks, N.D., in time for treatment starting early this week.

Kolstoe had said while sitting in her room that she was also worried about being there due to her “compromised” situation. The waiting was difficult, she said, with periods of boredom and frustration as well as considerable back pain caused by the cancer.

The D.C. region added five new cases late Monday night, bringing its total to 16.

D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser announced three new D.C. patients: a 39-year-old man who attends Christ Church Georgetown, where the rector has contracted the virus; a 77-year-old man who attended the Biogen conference in Boston that is connected to other cases across the country; and a 79-year-old man about whom no other information was released.

Christ Church said in a statement that its church organist, Tom Smith, tested positive for the virus. He and his husband are both under quarantine.

President Trump has not been tested for covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, the White House said late Monday.

White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said Trump has not had close contact with any known coronavirus patients and does not have any symptoms.

Questions about his possible exposure to the virus have abounded since the president was photographed shaking hands with Matt Schlapp, the chairman of the American Conservative Union. Schlapp had direct contact with a man at the Conservative Political Action Conference last month who was later confirmed to have the virus.

Prince George’s County Executive Angela D. Alsobrooks (D) announced on Monday that a resident has tested positive for the coronavirus.

She said a news conference would be held Tuesday morning.

Late Monday night, Gov. Larry Hogan (R) said the individual contracted the virus during out-of-state travel, becoming the first person diagnosed with the virus in Maryland who was not infected overseas.

A spokesman for Hogan said the person is self-quarantined, not hospitalized.

“It’s a virus. It’s going to spread,” Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City) said from the dais Monday night after the governor announced the state’s sixth case. “We’re going to have more cases.”

After Republican leaders gathered for the Conservative Political Action Conference near Washington, D.C., new reports of possible contact with a confirmed coronavirus patient there have spurred most — but not all — to self-quarantine.

While the CPAC website lists 17 members of Congress as speakers for the event, only six have reported publicly that they had contact with the attendee who later tested positive for the coronavirus in New Jersey, according to the American Conservative Union, which puts on CPAC. The latest to announce he had interacted with the infected attendee was incoming White House chief of staff Rep. Mark Meadows (N.C.), who took a preliminary test, which came back negative, according to his spokesman Ben Williamson. Still, he opted to self-quarantine.

The Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday asked employees at its D.C. headquarters to stay away from the office due to a potential coronavirus case, becoming the first major federal employer to turn to telework because of the spreading virus.

The email said an employee was treated for respiratory symptoms earlier Monday and was informed by a physician that the person could have the coronavirus. The worker had not been in the office since Thursday.

“To the best of our knowledge, the employee remained asymptomatic during the employee’s time in the building,” the email stated.

KIRKLAND, Wash. — Life Care Center of Kirkland, the Washington state nursing facility at the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, said almost 60 percent of its current residents have tested positive for covid-19, the disease caused by the virus.

Timothy Killian, a spokesman for facility, said Monday afternoon that the University of Washington informed the center Monday that 31 of the 53 residents have tested positive for the virus. Staff members had not yet been tested.

“These are residents inside the facility at this moment,” he said.

Dozens of coronavirus cases in several states have been linked to a company meeting of biotech giant Biogen in Boston in late February.

Most cases linked to the meeting, which was attended by about 175 people, are in Massachusetts. State health officials said Monday that 32 of the 41 infected patients in the state were either Biogen employees or close contacts of employees.

Two people in Indiana, five people in North Carolina and one person in New Jersey tested positive with coronavirus after attending the meeting.