Calif. turns away 3,500 on cruise ship
Scrambling to keep the coronavirus at bay, officials ordered a cruise ship with 3,500 people aboard to stay back from the California coast Thursday until passengers and crew can be tested, after a traveler from its previous voyage died of the disease and at least two others became infected.
A Coast Guard helicopter lowered test kits onto the 951-foot Grand Princess by rope as the vessel lay at anchor off Northern California, and authorities said the results would be available Friday. Princess Cruise Lines said fewer than 100 people aboard had been identified for testing.
“The ship will not come on shore until we appropriately assess the passengers,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said.
The precaution was prompted by the death of a Sacramento-area man who succumbed to the coronavirus after he had been on an earlier sailing of the ship, in February. Two other passengers from that voyage have been hospitalized with the virus in Northern California, officials said.
Meanwhile, the U.S. death toll from the coronavirus climbed to 12 on Thursday, with all but one of the victims in Washington state, and the number of infections swelled to over 200, scattered across 17 states. Nine of the dead were from the same suburban Seattle nursing home, now under federal investigation.
Across the country, New York’s mayor implored the federal government to send more test kits to his state, which saw its caseload double overnight to 22, all of them in or near the city.
In Rhode Island, about 200 people were quarantined because of their connections to a school trip to Italy that has so far resulted in three cases of the coronavirus. Amid four cases in Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis said the risks remain low for most people planning trips to the state for spring break or baseball’s spring training.
Princess Cruise Lines said no cases of the virus had been confirmed among those still on the ship. But dozens of passengers have had flu-like symptoms in the past two weeks or so, said Mary Ellen Carroll, executive director of San Francisco’s Department of Emergency Management.
“Once we have results from the tests,” she said, authorities “will determine the best location for the ship to berth.”
The ship was returning to San Francisco after visiting Hawaii. Some of the passengers remained on board after sailing on its previous voyage, to the Mexican ports of Puerto Vallarta, Manzanillo, Mazatlan and Cabo San Lucas.
An unfazed Colette Pratt, 86, of Sausalito, Calif., was on the Grand Princess’ cruise to Mexico and said she has avoided movie theaters and social gatherings since then for fear of spreading any illness.
“The worse I’ve got is a slight sore throat, but I often get allergies at this time of year,” she said, adding that her doctor told her to call if she developed major symptoms. Pratt said she and her friend kept to themselves and played a lot of dominoes during the cruise, and they enjoyed the trip and plan to go again in April to Hawaii.
The coronavirus has infected nearly 98,000 people worldwide and killed more than 3,300, the vast majority in China.
U.S. health officials said they expect a far lower death rate than the World Health Organization’s international estimate of 3.4% — a rate admittedly too high because it doesn’t account for mild cases that go uncounted.
Assistant Health Secretary Brett Giroir cited a model that included mild cases to say the U.S. could expect a death rate somewhere between 0.1% — like seasonal flu — and 1%. The risk is highest for older people and anyone with conditions such as heart or lung disease, diabetes or suppressed immune systems, such as from cancer treatments.
At least 70 coronavirus cases have been reported in Washington, most in the Seattle area, where researchers say the virus may have been circulating undetected for weeks.
Some major Seattle-area businesses have shut down some operations or urged employees to work from home.