A cruise ship near California hit by the new coronavirus is headed to the port of Oakland, the captain told passengers.
SAN FRANCISCO — A cruise ship hit by the coronavirus is headed to the port of Oakland, California, the captain told passengers, though they were destined to stay aboard the ship for at least another day.
Grand Princess Capt. John Smith, in a recording provided by passenger Laurie Miller of San Jose, told guests the ship will dock in Oakland. Princess Cruises says it’s expected to arrive on Monday. The ship is carrying more than 3,500 people from 54 countries.
“An agreement has been reached to bring our ship into the port of Oakland,” he told passengers Saturday night. “After docking, we will then begin a disembarkation process specified by federal authorities that will take several days.”
Passengers who need medical treatment or hospitalization will go to health care facilities in California, while state residents who don’t require acute medical care “will go to a federally run isolation facility within California for testing and isolation,” the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services said in a statement Sunday.
“The crew will be quarantined and treated aboard the ship, but importantly, the ship will only stay in Port of Oakland for the duration of disembarkment. This ship will depart Oakland as soon as possible and will remain elsewhere for the duration of the crew’s quarantine,” the statement said.
U.S. guests from outside California will be transported by the federal government to facilities in other states.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said numerous passengers — about 90 of them Texas residents — will be transferred to a military base in San Antonio for testing. It was not clear when the group would arrive.
Smith said the information he was given did not include any information about what would happen to passengers from other countries. California officials did not provide those details.
Meanwhile, the U.S. death toll from the virus climbed to 21, with all but three victims in Washington state. The number of infections swelled to more than 500, scattered across the U.S., as passengers aboard the ship holed up in their rooms.
The ship was heading from Hawaii to San Francisco when it was held off the California coast Wednesday so people with symptoms could be tested for the virus. Cruise officials on Saturday disclosed more information about how they think the outbreak may have occurred.
Grant Tarling, chief medical officer for Carnival Corp., said it’s believed a Northern California man, 71, who later died of the virus was probably sick when he boarded for a Feb. 11 cruise to Mexico.
The passenger visited the medical center the day before disembarking with symptoms of respiratory illness, he said. Others in several states and Canada who were on that voyage also have tested positive.
The passenger likely infected his dining room server, who also tested positive for the virus, Tarling said, as did two people traveling with the man. Two passengers now on the ship who have the virus were not on the previous cruise, he said.
An epidemiologist who studies the spread of virus particles said the recirculated air from a cruise ship’s ventilation system, plus the close quarters and communal settings, make passengers and crew vulnerable to infectious diseases.
“They’re not designed as quarantine facilities, to put it mildly,” said Don Milton of the University of Maryland.
Elderly people with underlying health conditions should avoid activities such as a cruise, Vice President Mike Pence said after a meeting with the cruiseline industry.
“If you have a family member or are yourself, a senior citizen with a serious underlying health condition, this would be a good time to practice common sense and to avoid activities, including traveling on a cruise line, that might unnecessarily expose one to the coronavirus,” Pence said Saturday in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Worldwide, the virus has infected nearly 110,000 people and killed more than 3,800, the vast majority in China.