202003.07
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Radio station KOLA suspends cruise giveaway contest due to coronavirus concerns

by in News

Inland Empire-based radio station KOLA 99.9 announced Friday it was suspending its popular cruise giveaway contest due to health concerns related to the novel coronavirus.

“We share the concerns and we would never want to place our listeners in harms way,” the Redlands-based radio station said in a Facebook post on Friday morning.

For now, KOLA, which broadcasts classic radio hits, from Blondie to Billy Idol, focused on the audience in San Bernardino and Riverside counties, said it would come up with a new giveaway contest in the interim.

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, cruise ships have proved to be breeding grounds for the disease, spreading to ship crew members and passengers.

Twenty-one passengers on a Princess Cruises ship parked off the coast of San Francisco tested positive for coronavirus, Vice President Mike Pence announced on Friday. The Grand Princess was bound for Hawaii, but was ordered to halt its travel on Wednesday when officials learned a California man who traveled on the ship in February had died.

The death was the first fatality as a result of coronavirus in the state.

Another Princess cruise ship, the Diamond Princess, was quarantined for two weeks in Yokohama, Japan, last month because of the virus, and ultimately about 700 of the 3,700 people aboard became infected.

And in Long Beach on Saturday, thousands of passengers on a docked cruise ship were blocked from disembarking while a woman who had been aboard the ship was being tested at a local hospital for coronavirus.

Though there have been no known cases of coronavirus in the Inland Empire, Murrieta Valley High School said it would cancel classes this Monday while one of its employees was being tested for the disease. Additionally, 71 students from the school were ordered to self-quarantine.

In Los Angeles County, officials declared on Saturday the 14th case discovered in the county after a man who recently returned from a trip Washington D.C. tested positive.