Cruise passengers off California coast await test results
SAN FRANCISCO/ WASHINGTON: CORONA VIRUS test results were expected on Friday for some passengers and crew aboard a cruise ship held off the California coast.
The Grand Princess lay at anchor near San Francisco on Thursday after a traveller from a previous voyage died of the disease and at least four others became infected.
While the more than 3,500 aboard the 951-foot vessel were ordered to stay at sea as officials scrambled to keep the virus at bay, only 45 were identified for testing, Princess Cruises said in a statement.
“The ship won’t come on shore until we appropriately assess the passengers,” California governor Gavin Newsom said.
A Sacramento-area man who sailed on the ship in February later succumbed to the coronavirus. Two other passengers from that voyage have been hospitalized with the virus in Northern California, and two Canadians who recently sailed aboard the ship tested positive after returning home, officials said.
Northern California officials also are awaiting test results from a man who died Thursday after being on a cruise where others have tested positive.
Meanwhile, the US death toll from the coronavirus climbed to 14, with all but one victim in Washington state, while the number of infections swelled to over 200, scattered across 18 states. Colorado and Nevada reported their first cases. Nine of the dead were from the same suburban Seattle nursing home.
US President Donald Trump is expected to sign an $8.3 billion measure on Friday to help tackle the coronavirus outbreak.