NEW ORLEANS (AP) — New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, his wife, Seletha, and a member of his security detail remained in quarantine in China on Tuesday.
The three have been in quarantine at a Shanghai hotel since Sunday after a passenger on their flight from New Jersey showed flu symptoms.
Ceeon Quiett, a spokeswoman for the mayor in New Orleans, said Nagin was feeling fine and that the three, as of early Tuesday, had not been tested for the flu. She said she still had not officially given any date when the three would be released from quarantine.
She said Nagin has been accessible to his staff via e-mail and communicating with officials back home “constantly.”
“He’s in quarantine, so the activities are extremely limited,” she said when asked how he was spending his time. ” … The mayor always packs reading materials. I’m sure they have a television in the room.”
The mayor’s original itinerary for what his office called an economic development trip had him leaving China Tuesday and heading to Australia, where he was to deliver speeches on climate change and sustainable building. The status of that leg of the trip remained unclear.
Nagin’s original schedule had him returning to New Orleans on June 15.
Quiett said Nagin, who visited China last year, had two meetings before receiving the quarantine notice.
Officials in New Orleans have been looking at how best to reposition the city, and its port, to take advantage of any new trade opportunities, particularly with the planned expansion of the Panama Canal. Before Nagin left, a city spokesman said the mayor had planned to visit the port of Shanghai.—-Contact The Daily Reveille news staff at [email protected]