Tourism & Cruises
A 71-year-old died of coronavirus after Grand Princess cruise. Passengers now on lockdown
Passengers on board Carnival Corp.’s Grand Princess cruise ship were confined to their cabins Wednesday to await medical screening after a former passenger died of the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, in California earlier that day.
The 71-year-old man, whom authorities have not identified, died of COVID-19 in Placer County, outside Sacramento, Wednesday. He sailed on the ship out of San Francisco from Feb. 11-21. Another Grand Princess passenger from that cruise, now in nearby Sonoma County, has also tested positive, with news reports quoting California Gov. Gavin Newsom as saying he is in “difficult condition.”
Princess Cruises, owned by Miami-based Carnival Corp., said the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday ordered 62 passengers from the previous cruise who stayed on the ship for the current cruise to remain in their cabins until they received a health screening. Eleven passengers and 10 crew aboard the cruise ship have reported symptoms of the virus, the Sacramento Bee reported.
Newsom said the state will fly coronavirus tests to the ship, which will be docked offshore near San Francisco Thursday, to give officials time to test people aboard.
Newsom said it take several hours to get test results back showing whether the passengers and crew members exhibiting symptoms have the virus. The ship can hold 2,600 passengers and more than 1,000 crew members.
This is the second Carnival Corp. cruise ship, and the same line, Princess Cruises, that has had to quarantine passengers as a result of the virus. The first ship, the Diamond Princess, became the site of the largest outbreak of COVID-19 outside of mainland China with 706 cases and six deaths as it was quarantined in Yokohoma, Japan in February.
The Grand Princess is sailing off the coast of California on a 15-day round-trip cruise out of San Francisco to Hawaii and Mexico. It will return to San Francisco Thursday afternoon, cutting short its trip after skipping a scheduled stop in Baja California, Mexico.
“The CDC is continuing to actively collect information and is collaborating with us to determine what, if any, actions need to be taken during the current Hawaii cruise and upon the ship’s return to San Francisco,” the company said in a statement. “We have shared essential travel and health data with the CDC to facilitate their standard notification to the State and County health authorities in order to follow up with individuals who may have been exposed to the people who became ill.“
Princess Cruises did not respond to a request for comment about the outcome of Wednesday’s health screenings and whether the crew members who were on board during the previous cruise are being isolated and screened.
The CDC did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The company is advising passengers who were on the Grand Princess Feb. 11-21 cruise to contact a doctor if they show symptoms of the illness: fever, chills, cough, or difficulty breathing.
More than 95,000 cases of COVID-19 have been reported worldwide — more than 80,200 of those are in mainland China. The U.S. has nearly 150 cases confirmed so far, including three cases connected to Florida. Eleven people in the U.S. have died of the illness.
To avoid having passengers bring the coronavirus on board, Princess Cruises and other companies are denying boarding to people who have traveled to mainland China, Macau, Hong Kong, South Korea, Iran or lockdown areas within Lombardy and Veneto, Italy, within the past 14 days. The company is not allowing crew members from China, South Korea or the affected areas within Lombardy and Veneto to work on its ships.
This story has been updated to clarify a second former Grand Princess passenger who tested positive for COVID-19 is in Sonoma County.
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