Coronavirus: Ocean liner barred from returning to California port

The Grand Princess is owned by Princess Cruises, the same company which owns the Diamond Princess ship that was quarantined off the coast of Japan last month. PHOTO: AFP

SAN FRANCISCO • An ocean liner that previously carried two passengers who contracted the coronavirus has been barred from returning to its home port of San Francisco from a voyage to Hawaii after at least 20 people aboard fell ill.

California Governor Gavin Newsom said on Wednesday that the cruise ship Grand Princess would remain at sea until passengers and crew complaining of symptoms that may be consistent with Covid-19 can be tested to determine whether they have it.

Coronavirus testing kits will be flown out to the ship and flown back with samples to be analysed at a state laboratory in the San Francisco Bay area, a process he said should produce results in a matter of hours.

"So we're holding that ship, which has thousands of passengers, off the coast, and will be conducting those tests and getting those tests back," Mr Newsom said.

Eleven passengers and 10 crew members have reported symptoms that could turn out to be Covid-19, seasonal flu or the common cold, he added.

Two passengers who travelled on the same ship on a previous voyage last month between San Francisco and Mexico later fell ill and tested positive for Covid-19. Health officials said they probably contracted the illness on board the vessel.

One, an elderly man from Placer County near Sacramento with underlying health conditions, died this week, the first documented Covid-19 fatality in California. The other, from the Bay area, was described by Mr Newsom as gravely sick.

Mr Newsom said the state health authorities, working with the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), were trying to contact some 2,500 passengers who were on that earlier voyage.

Depending on the outcome of the tests, the ship might be directed to an arrival point other than San Francisco.

Mr Newsom said the manifest for the ship's Hawaii cruise included 50 to 60 passengers who were also on board the Mexico voyage.

The Grand Princess is owned by Princess Cruises, the same company which owns the Diamond Princess ship, that was quarantined off the coast of Japan last month. That was for a time the largest concentration of virus cases outside China, with over 700 people infected and at least six deaths.

REUTERS

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on March 06, 2020, with the headline Coronavirus: Ocean liner barred from returning to California port. Subscribe