Top US Health Official Warns Older Americans: ‘Don’t Get on a Cruise Ship’

Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), and Dr. Anne Schuchat, principal deputy director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), speak to the media about the Zika virus, during a briefing at the White House, on Feb. 8. Mark Wilson/Getty Images

The country’s top infectious disease expert on Sunday warned older Americans and those with underlying health problems to stay off cruise ships and limit air travel amid the worldwide COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak.

“If you’re a person with an underlying condition and you are particularly an elderly person with an underlying condition, you need to think twice about getting on a plane, on a long trip," Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday. “And not only think twice, just don’t get on a cruise ship.”