Limbo over: Cruise ship to dock at Oakland port
Passengers will leave vessel and be treated for virus or quarantined at military bases.
Passengers confined to their cabins on the Grand Princess cruise ship off the Northern California coast learned Sunday that their week of limbo induced by a COVID-19 outbreak is set to end, as federal and state officials announced a plan to dock at a commercial cargo port in Oakland.
All 2,500 passengers and those in need of immediate medical care will get off the ship Monday to be assessed for either transfer to treatment at regional medical facilities or quarantine at state military bases, while foreigners will be repatriated to their home countries, ac
cording to the plan.
Gov. Gavin Newsom said at a news conference in Oakland on Sunday that the disembarkation and transfer of passengers would take up to three days.
But he warned that the situation was “fluid” and could take longer, in part because the port does not regularly deal with cruise ships, and tides and currents allowed only small windows of time to enter and leave.
When finished, the Grand Princess would sail out of San Francisco Bay, he said, with the remaining 1,094 crew members — mostly foreign nationals — to be quarantined on board.
Standing next to Newsom, Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf sought to assure city residents and port workers that officials were taking every precaution to protect them from infection using “best isolation practices.”
“I’ve been clear with our state and federal partners,” she said, “this is a community that has suffered decades of environmental racism and injustice.”
But she added: “We have to not let our fears dictate or impede our humanity.”
Newsom said authorities had assessed numerous ports, and initially planned to direct the ship to the former Naval Air Station Alameda.
But “silting issues” made it hazardous for the large ship to land there, he said, and San Francisco’s port was too close to residential and tourist zones.
The federal government was sending so-called hasty teams on Sunday to board the ship to get a sense of what healthcare workers will face on the ground, he said, while the 10-acre site in Oakland’s outer harbor was being cleared and fenced for the onshore processing to begin on Monday.
It is unclear how widely the virus spread aboard the ship. Several days ago, the Coast Guard sent 45 tests, and 21 came back positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the new virus.
The virus first infected an unknown number of passengers aboard the previous voyage on the ship, a roundtrip sail from San Francisco to various ports on Mexico’s Pacific Coast, between Feb. 11 and Feb. 21. Seventy of those guests held over for the next voyage, from San Francisco to Hawaii and back.
The remaining guests, including 1,540 Californians, simply disembarked with no knowledge of an outbreak aboard. Twelve of them have tested positive in the state, and one man later died, in Placer County.
While state and federal health officials are still reaching out to and trying to monitor those earlier passengers, those aboard the Hawaii trip will be tightly isolated, authorities said.
Newsom said most of the 962 California residents aboard the Grand Princess who did not need immediate medical attention would be taken to Travis Air Force Base in nearby Solano County for 14 days of quarantine, with a smaller number going to the Marine Corps Air Station in San Diego, officials said.
The remaining American passengers would be sent to military bases in Texas and Georgia, while foreign passengers would be flown to their home countries.
Officials were also working to prepare Oakland International Airport for the charter flights to the other bases, and out of the country.
“There will be no contact with the general population terminals at Oakland Airport,” Newsom said.
Debbie Loftus, a passenger from Wisconsin, said she was pleased Newsom spoke directly to passengers and thought the news conference, which she watched, represented a “change in attitude.”
“It is nice that he is now welcoming us into California; a few days ago, he did not want us anywhere near his state,” Loftus said.
President Trump said on Friday that he preferred the passengers not be allowed to disembark on U.S. soil, but added that he would let his coronavirus task force, led by Vice President Mike Pence, make the call.
Newsom, noting the normally combative relationship between his and Trump’s administrations, said Pence’s team “has been truly exceptional.”
The infections aboard the Grand Princess followed the outbreak aboard its sister ship, the Diamond Princess, which was quarantined at the Port of Yokohama in Japan last month. Some 700 people aboard the Diamond Princess were infected, and eight have died.
Experts said the confinement of passengers aboard the Diamond Princess created conditions highly conducive to the spread of the virus on board.
Interviewed on CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday, Surgeon Gen. Jerome Adams promised that sick passengers would “get the medical care that they need, that they’re appropriately evacuated” and also that people would leave the ship “as quickly and as safely as possible.”
The U.S. State Department on Sunday advised that “U.S. citizens, particularly travelers with underlying health conditions, should not travel by cruise ship,” noting an “increased risk of infection of COVID-19 in a cruise ship environment.”
“While the U.S. government has evacuated some cruise ship passengers in recent weeks, repatriation flights should not be relied upon as an option for U.S. citizens under the potential risk of quarantine by local authorities,” the federal agency said in a statement posted on its website.
Newsom urged the cruise ship industry to look beyond short-term gain and “own this moment.”
Speaking more generally about the virus, he said the number of Californians testing positive jumped from 88 Saturday to 114 on Sunday, but he emphasized that the number was expected to rise as testing became more widely available.
While only 788 tests have been conducted statewide so far, California currently has kits for 8,000 individuals, and a private lab, Quest Diagnostics in San Juan Capistrano, will be able to process 2,000 tests each day beginning Monday, if needed.
There are also 15 public labs processing tests, including a facility in Richmond, where tests for the Grand Princess passengers were conducted.
More than two hours offshore, stuck in their cabins, many passengers were struggling with claustrophobic conditions but were happy to learn they could go outside for fresh air, in batches.
Loftus, the passenger from Wisconsin, said that many uncertainties remained that are causing her anxiety.
“This is all going to be a very new experience, going to a military base in Oakland, getting on what I assume is not going to be a commercial airline or ... going someplace I’ve never been,” she said. “Not sure what the accommodations are going to be like and how long we’re going to be held there. Yes, it’s a little bit anxiety-producing but [we] will handle it minute by minute.”
Matt LaGesse’s mother and aunt are on the ship, and he has been trying for days to get information, with little luck.
LaGesse said he was angered by the president’s comments about potentially keeping passengers on board, and what he felt was a lack of planning and leadership around the crisis. Despite details given by Newsom, he remained frustrated and uncertain about what would come next.
LaGesse said he has not been contacted about the disembarkation plan by authorities or the cruise line.
“As a family member and son of a mom that I really, really love ... I’m scared and nervous and disappointed,” he said Sunday. “You expect your leadership ... to give you clear messaging so that you can understand the plan.”