What’s next for Grand Princess passengers? They’re heading to another quarantine
The Grand Princess cruise ship has entered the San Francisco Bay and is set to dock in Oakland, where the roughly 2,500 passengers will disembark after spending days at sea under a coronavirus quarantine.
But their journey is not over yet.
The passengers are expected remain under quarantine. There have been 46 people tested for COVID-19, with 21 testing positive for the virus.
Those who are sickest will be taken to nearby medical facilities. The roughly 1,100 crew members of the Grand Princess will remain in quarantine aboard the ship.
The nearly 1,000 passengers who reside in California will be taken to either Travis Air Force Base, near Fairfield, or Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, near San Diego, according to state emergency officials. The remaining passengers will be taken to federal facilities out of state.
The passengers will be bused or flown to the military bases by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and once they arrive on base they will be provided a single room with adjoining bathroom, and will not be allowed to leave their rooms during the stay, said Robert Salesses, deputy assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense integration. CDC and the Department of Health and Human Services is arranging the transportation to the base.
What follows is a 14-day quarantine, according to the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services.
“The folks are actually secluded in those rooms, their meals are brought to them,” Salesses said. If anyone shows symptoms, they will be removed from the base, he said.
“All of the feeding the care … all the medical care that has to take place. If somebody presents with symptoms, they will either be taken to a local facility, or HHS has additional facilities they will provide,” Salesses said.
After the quarantine ends, the passengers will be free to go, but will need to continue monitoring their health and symptoms and take precautions to avoid potential exposure, according to an California Office of Emergency Services spokesman.
This latest quarantine comes as both California Gov. Gavin Newsom and the U.S. State Department have issued warnings people, particularly the elderly and those with underlying health conditions, should not travel by cruise ship.
The Grand Princess had been on a planned voyage to Hawaii when the trip was cut short when it was learned that several passengers from the ship’s previous trip to Mexico had contracted the novel coronavirus. A 71-year-old Placer County man was among them and later became California’s first coronavirus-related death.
This story was originally published March 9, 2020 at 12:11 PM.