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Chef Jose Andres’ charity sends food to coronavirus-stricken ship

By Nick Iannelli

Jose Andres, the celebrity chef with numerous local restaurants, is helping people who have been trapped in Japan on a cruise ship that’d been quarantined due to coronavirus concerns. Andrés directed his nonprofit World Central Kitchen to the area where the Diamond Princess is docked, and the group is now delivering meals to passengers and crew members. World Central Kitchen is known primarily for helping victims of natural disasters, in places such as Puerto Rico and Houston. “We are preparing meals for the folks that are currently on the ship,” said Tim Kilcoyne, the group’s director of chef operations. The group began its work on Tuesday and has been delivering breakfast, lunch and dinner. Pasta Primavera and Beef Stroganoff have been among the meals, so far, Kilcoyne said in a video posted online.

Coronavirus: What you need to know

“Everybody here is amazing,” Kilcoyne said. “All these volunteers are working their butts off.” The Diamond Princess, docked in Yokohama, a port near Tokyo, started letting passengers who tested negative for the virus off the ship Wednesday. That’s when the government-mandated 14-day quarantine ended. On Thursday, hundreds of other passengers were also expected to leave in a massive process expected to last through Friday. Test results are still pending for some people on board.

Before the quarantine on the ship had ended, the United States evacuated more than 300 Americans and put them in quarantine in the U.S. for another 14 days. South Korea, Australia and Hong Kong evacuated their residents for quarantines as well, and Canada and Italy sent flights for their citizens. Japan’s health ministry said Thursday that two infected elderly passengers died after they were taken off the ship. They were the first fatalities from the virus-stricken vessel. The 621 cases confirmed among the Diamond Princess’s original 3,711 people on board are the most anywhere outside China. The virus began in China late last year and has sickened tens of thousands of people, mostly in central China’s Hubei province. The Associated Press contributed to this report.  

States seek to lower drug prices by targeting the companies that manage them for health plans

By The Associated Press
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — As consumers worry about medication costs, states are trying to lower drug prices by reining in big companies that oversee prescription coverage for health insurers. Some of those companies, called pharmacy benefit managers, also own pharmacies, and one of them, CVS, has spent millions of dollars fighting the regulations. Affordability is a key issue ahead of this year’s midterm elections. Legislators in at least a dozen states passed laws this year to limit compensation to the companies, set minimum payments from the companies to pharmacists and require the companies to disclose more information to their clients, states and the public. A Tennessee law will bar pharmacy benefit managers from operating retail pharmacies as of July 1, 2028, though CVS Health Corp. has filed a federal lawsuit to avoid having to close its 136 pharmacies there.
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