Cruise ship forbidden to dock in Bay Area
US death toll at 19 with 400 infections throughout nation
Thousands of passengers were confined to the vessel near San Francisco after 21 travelers and crew members tested positive for the coronavirus.
SAN FRANCISCO — Thousands of anxious passengers were confined Saturday to a cruise ship circling in international waters off the San Francisco Bay Area, after 21 travelers and crew members tested positive for the new coronavirus.
The Grand Princess was forbidden to dock in San Francisco amid evidence that the vessel had been the breeding ground for a cluster of nearly 20 cases that resulted in at least one death after its previous voyage.
People on social media pleaded Saturday with elected officials to let the ship dock.
Karen Dever of Moorestown, New Jersey, agreed that she should be tested for coronavirus but wants officials to let her go if her results come back negative.
“Fourteen more days on this ship, I think by the end I will need a mental health visit,” she said with a laugh. “I’m an American. I should be able to come home.”
Meanwhile, Florida reported two coronavirus deaths — the first in the country outside the West Coast. Health officials said the people in their 70s died in Santa Rosa County in Florida’s Panhandle and in the Fort Myers area after traveling overseas. Florida also raised the number of people who have tested positive for COVID-19 — the disease caused by the coronavirus — to 14. An
People walk in a sparse departure terminal Saturday at JFK airport in New York as concern over the coronavirus grows. additional 88 test results are Cuomo announced the as necessary,” Pence said. what happened to hundreds pending. number of people testing Princess said in an email of passengers who
The U.S. death toll from positive statewide has the ship is about 50 miles off were exposed to the virus the virus climbed to 19, with reached 76. San Francisco. It said a on another cruise ship in all but three of the victims in In California, state authorities critically ill passenger was January. Washington state. The were working with taken from the ship to a The uncertainty was number of infections federal officials to bring the medical facility for treatment wearing on passengers — swelled to 400, scattered Grand Princess cruise ship unrelated to the virus. and their families on land — across about half of the to a noncommercial port The Coast Guard used a as they passed a second full states. Indiana, Minnesota, over the weekend and test helicopter to drop gloves day confined to their rooms. Nebraska and Pennsylvania the 3,500 people aboard for and face masks to the ship, Santa Cruz County resident reported their first cases. the virus. There was no and the captain was awaiting Rex Lawson, 86, said
In New York, Gov. Andrew immediate word on where “specific directives” on he and his wife were lucky Cuomo declared a the vessel will dock. what to do next, the statement because they have a balcony state of emergency Saturday Vice President Mike says. and fresh air and feel healthy, as the New Rochelle coronavirus Pence met with cruise line While health officials but he feels for travelers virus cluster continued executives Saturday in Florida said about 1,100 crew members confined to interior rooms. to expand, with 23 and said that officials will remain aboard, “It’s quite anxious because new cases bringing Westchester were still working on a plan. passengers could be disembarked we don’t know what’s County’s infected “All passengers and crew to face quarantine, going on. I guess nobody population to 57 people — will be tested for the coronavirus possibly at U.S. military knows what’s going on,” he the most in New York state. and quarantined bases or other sites. That’s said. “It looks like we get information from the television first and then the captain.”
Several passengers expressed frustration that they had to learn from the news Friday that 21 people on the cruise had tested positive. Some worried their chances of infection increased the longer they stay on board.
President Donald Trump, speaking Friday at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, said he would prefer not to allow the passengers onto American soil but will defer to the recommendations of medical experts.
“I don’t need to have the numbers (of U.S. cases) double because of one ship that wasn’t our fault,” Trump said while touring the CDC in Atlanta. “And it wasn’t the fault of the people on the ship either. OK? It wasn’t their fault either. And they are mostly American, so I can live either way with it.”
The ship was heading from Hawaii to San Francisco when it was held off the California coast Wednesday so 46 people with possible coronavirus symptoms could be tested.Health officials in Madera and Santa Cruz counties Saturday confirmed two more cases in California. Ventura County said Friday it had tested five residents who had been on the earlier cruise; one person was positive.
Some passengers who had been on the Mexico trip stayed aboard for the current voyage — increasing crew members’ exposure to the virus.
The New York Daily News and the Sun Sentinel contributed.