MIAMI _ Puerto Rico's Secretary of Health has resigned and the U.S. territory is canceling schools and suspending cruise-ship traffic after three people tested positive for the coronavirus on Friday.
In a conference late Friday, Gov. Wanda Vazquez said she'd accepted the resignation of Health Secretary Rafael Rodriguez.
"I know that there has been a great deal of dissatisfaction in regard to the latest incidents over the last few days, and I've felt that dissatisfaction myself," she said, according to El Nuevo Dia.
Vazquez also canceled school through the end of March and said she was suspending the arrival of cruise ships _ seen as one of the vectors of the coronavirus. That decree also covers the ferry service from the Dominican Republic, where there are 11 cases of COVID-19.
Puerto Rico announced its first suspected coronavirus cases on March 8, when a 68-year-old woman from the Costa Luminosa cruise ship was taken to the hospital with pneumonia accompanied by her husband.
Authorities said they sent those samples to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for testing on Monday but didn't get results back until late Friday.
While the government laid the blame for the delay on the CDC, there were also suggestions that local health authorities botched the process, sending samples that were in poor condition and missing information.
In a statement to the Miami Herald late Friday, the CDC said its "goal is to test, and report results within 48 hours of all samples received in the proper condition and accompanied by accurate documentation."
There were also concerns that health authorities didn't do enough early on to contain the spread of COVID-19. While the passengers of the Costa Luminosa were allowed to disembark in old San Juan last weekend, they had had been forced to stay on the boat at ports of call before and after Puerto Rico due to fears of the coronavirus.
Puerto Rico has had 17 suspected COVID-19 cases, but six of them are at the Veterans Affairs hospital in San Juan and being handled directly by the federal government. Of those, four have come back negative, officials said.
Of the 11 cases under the local government's control, five have come back negative and three are still pending.
The three positive cases are the couple from the Costa Luminosa and a 71-year-old man from the capital, San Juan.
The government now has the ability to test for COVID-19 on the island, which should reduce the turnaround time for new tests, officials said.
Vazquez was to hold a cabinet meeting on Saturday to decide the next steps.
