Update: Modesto couple still confined on cruise ship, which is scheduled to dock in Oakland
Their cruise was supposed to end Saturday morning. But instead, Modesto married couple Gina Pallotta and Mike Neky, like all of the roughly 3,500 on board, remained stuck on the Grand Princess ship circling the waters outside of San Francisco and waiting to be tested for the coronavirus.
Late Saturday night, they learned the ship would dock Monday in the Port of Oakland.
“An agreement has been reached to bring our ship into the port of Oakland,” Capt. John Smith told passengers Saturday night. “After docking, we will then begin a disembarkation process specified by federal authorities that will take several days.”
In a news release early Sunday morning, the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services said: “As soon as tomorrow, the ship will begin disembarking passengers at the Port of Oakland. The ship will only be docked during the duration of the disembarkment.
“These passengers will not be released into the general public. Passengers who require acute medical treatment and hospitalization will be transported to health care facilities in California.
“If passengers do not require acute medical care following health screenings, those who are California residents will go to a federally run isolation facility within California for testing and isolation, while non-Californians will be transported by the federal government to facilities in other states. ...”
It was Friday night, like much of the nation, when Pallotta said they learned from TV news that 21 people aboard their cruise had tested positive for COVID-19, which has killed at least 16 people in the United States and more than 3,500 people globally.
After the nationally televised press conference by Vice President Mike Pence announcing that 19 crew members and two passengers had the virus, she said the ship’s captain came on the loudspeaker to apologize for the news not getting to them sooner.
“It was kind of devastating, our concern is because of the people who were diagnosed is that 19 were crew,” she said in a phone call from her cabin, where she and her husband have been confined since Thursday. “Of course we are worried about the people who tested positive and their health. And we’re worried who they are, especially the crew, and if we interacted with them.”
According to the California Department of Public Health, the state has 69 confirmed cases of the virus, and one death. In Stanislaus County as of Saturday morning, there were still no confirmed cases, said Dr. Julie Vaishampayan, county public health officer for the Health Services Agency.
So far 11 people have been tested with three negatives and the remaining eight pending results in the county.
On Saturday, a Madera County resident had been confirmed as the latest case connected to the cruise ship, according to The Fresno Bee. The passenger had been on a previous Princess cruise. Later Saturday, Fresno County received word of its first case.
On the Grand Princess itself some 45 people on the ship have been been tested so far, yielding the 21 positive results. But Pallotta said to her knowledge no one else, herself and her husband included, has been tested and she does not expect mass testing for its some 2,400 passengers and 1,100 crew members until they are allowed to dock.
Before Saturday night’s announcement, that had remained very much in the air. The Trump administration and the president himself had expressed a desire for the cruise ship to not dock anywhere in the United States.
“I don’t need to have the numbers double because of one ship that wasn’t our fault,” Donald Trump said while touring the CDC Friday. “And it wasn’t the fault of the people on the ship either. OK? It wasn’t their fault either. And they are mostly Americans.”
It’s the lack of information that has been the hardest, Pallotta said.
They receive updates from the captain four to five times a day. But other than that she said they are getting their information from the news, internet and talking with family and friends via cellphone and email.
Food is brought to them three times a day and left outside of their door. While she said the selection has been generous so far, they are starting to worry about supply. Saturday morning she said both the milk and orange juice provided with their breakfast appeared spoiled. They’ve also stopped supplying cabins with bottled water and instead passengers have been told the tap water is safe to drink.
Also, without knowing which crew members are infected, they worry about the virus spreading to others on the ship. Crew members are the only ones allowed to move about the ship currently, and they regularly deliver meals, towels and other amenities to passengers, left outside their cabin doors. Crew is not allowed inside guestrooms because of the virus.
“Potentially we may have people serving us and dishing up food that may be positive and not know it. It absolutely concerns me,” Pallotta said.
She said Saturday she was also worried for her husband, who has diabetes and will run out of his medication on Sunday. Friday the passengers were given forms, paper or online, to fill out about what medications they take and need. But they have not been given an update on whether more will be supplied yet.
On Saturday morning, two passengers were evacuated from the cruise ship by a U.S. Coast Guard cutter. They were described as a “critically ill U.S. guest and their travel companion.” But Grand Princess cruise said the illness is not related to coronavirus.
Pallotta said she has grown frustrated at the politicization of the coronavirus, especially in the United States. She watched Trump’s CDC press conference, where he called Gov. Jay Inslee of Washington — whose state is currently facing the largest coronavirus outbreak in the nation — a “snake” Friday.
“We know he doesn’t like (California Gov. Gavin Newsom); is this holding up the decision of where to dock?” she said. “For him to go on TV and say this kind of stuff it’s so infuriating and we feel that’s impacting us directly.”
Pallotta and Neky remain isolated in their rooms. They said more entertainment options have been added to their viewing choices. They’ve been spending their days watching the news and movies, about 10 so far since they were ordered to remain in their cabins.
“You wait for your food to come and just keep listening to the news to see if there is anything,” she said.
This story was originally published March 7, 2020 at 2:34 PM with the headline "Update: Modesto couple still confined on cruise ship, which is scheduled to dock in Oakland."
