Grand Princess cruise ship to dock in Oakland on Monday – Los Angeles Times

Thanks! Share it with your friends!

Close

The nearly 3,000 travelers stranded off the San Francisco coast on the Grand Princess cruise ship because of a coronavirus outbreak will dock in Oakland on Monday, giving sick passengers a chance to receive medical treatment after more than two weeks at sea.

Princess Cruises announced on Twitter that federal, state and local authorities have cleared the ship to dock at the Port of Oakland on Monday at a “time to be determined.”

The cruise company said “guests who require acute medical treatment and hospitalization” will be taken off the ship first and taken to “medical facilities in California.”

At least 21 passengers on board the ship have confirmed cases of COVID-19, which is caused by the coronavirus that originated late last year in China.

Other passengers will disembark and receive health screenings as directed by the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, the company said. After the screenings, California residents will be taken to “a federally operated facility within California for testing and isolation,” and “non-Californians will be transported by the federal government to facilities in other states.”

Grand Princess crew members will remain on board for quarantine and treatment, the company said.

Princess Cruises initially stated that the docking would begin Sunday, then pushed it back to Monday after “further review by the state and federal authorities.”

Sign up for the latest news, best stories and what they mean for you, plus answers to your questions.

U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) said some of the ship’s passengers will be sent to Lackland Air Force Base near San Antonio.

“I believe the folks with symptoms are mostly staying in California,” Castro tweeted. “Check me on that but that’s my best understanding.”

The passengers on board departed for Hawaii on Feb. 21. The ship was supposed to proceed to Ensenada, but the on-board coronavirus outbreak prompted the vessel to sail to San Francisco instead. It reached the California coast Thursday, but was not able to dock.

In addition to the 21 people who have already tested positive for the virus, an unknown number of others are sick and awaiting tests.

Before the Hawaii excursion, the Grand Princess took an ill-fated cruise to Mexico. One of the passengers, a 75-year-old man from Placer County, fell ill during the trip and became the first Californian to die of COVID-19. Altogether, a dozen coronavirus cases in California have been linked to passengers on that cruise.

Passengers on the ship are eager to disembark but remain frustrated by the many unknowns that remain.

Debra Gooch Healer, a passenger from Napa, said all she knew is that she would be taken to a federal facility in California. She did not know where that will be or how long she will have to stay there.

“Any ACLU attorney out there who can tell us our rights??” she tweeted.

She and others also complained that they were forced to remain in their rooms, and that food supplies had run low.

Another woman who said her parents are stuck on the ship tweeted at Gov. Gavin Newsom and Vice President Mike Pence to send the passengers more food.

“I can handle my family in quarantine,” she wrote. “I cannot handle them being denied basic necessities.”

At least 433 coronavirus cases have been confirmed across the U.S., including about 90 in California. Worldwide, more than 106,000 people have been infected and nearly 3,600 have died.

Source Article from https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-03-08/grand-princess-cruise-ship-to-dock-in-oakland-some-passengers-quarantine-in-san-antonio

Comments

Write a comment