Instead of meeting with international business leaders to talk up the Crescent City, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin today is sequestered in a Shanghai hotel room. The swine flu scare in China has sidetracked what was supposed to be an official mayoral trip.
Government officials of densely-populated China aren't taking chances with swine flu, so when a passenger on the flight overseas developed flu-like symptoms, everyone seated near that passenger, including Nagin, his wife, and a security staffer, all went into quarantine.
Nagin spokeswoman Ceeon Quiett says it has disrupted the schedule.
"Right now, everything is to be determined," Quiett said.
Listen to Mayor Ray Nagin Spokeswoman Ceeon Quiett:
Nagin left Friday on an economic development trip through the eastern Pacific. He was to travel next to Australia to speak on climate change and sustainable building at the University of Sydney.
According to city hall officials, no one on the mayor's trip has any symptoms, but they will have to wait until Chinese authorities lift the quarantine.
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