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 The 2,400 passengers, who have been largely confined to their
staterooms since Thursday, were to begin disembarking on Monday for
transport to quarantine stations or hospitals, depending on whether
they are well or need immediate medical attention.
Except for those with acute illness, the 1,100 crew members are to
remain aboard the Grand Princess, which will depart the Port of
Oakland as soon as possible to be quarantined for two weeks in an
as-yet undisclosed location outside San Francisco Bay, officials
said.
Video footage shot by one of the arriving cruise guests and shared
with Reuters showed jubilant passengers cheering from their
stateroom balconies and open windows, some shouting, "We're home!"
as the vessel passed beneath the Golden Gate Bridge into the bay.
Twenty-one people aboard the ship, mostly crew, tested positive on
Friday for coronavirus, which causes the respiratory disease known
as COVID-19, in an initial round of diagnostic screenings performed
on about 45 people with symptoms.
The remaining passengers are to be tested and monitored for signs
and symptoms of the illness that can lead to pneumonia once they
reach their designated quarantine sites.
Denise Stoneham, 52, a Bay area resident on the cruise with her
husband, seemed to take the ordeal in stride as she spoke to Reuters
by Facetime while the ship glided into the port.
"It hasn't been too much of a hardship for us; it's just been more
of an inconvenience, I guess," she said. "We're just anxious to get
home."
Princess Cruises, owner-operator of the ship, announced that
passengers would receive a full refund for the price of the cruise,
including air travel, hotel, ground transportation and pre-paid
shore excursions.
The company also offered patrons credit for a future cruise equal to
the fare paid for the voyage.
But at least one couple aboard the Grand Princess were seeking more
than a refund.
In what was believed to be the first civil case stemming from the
cruise outbreak, Ronald and Eva Weissberger of Broward County,
Florida, sued the cruise line for more than $1 million, saying they
were traumatized by the fear of developing coronavirus.
Parent company Carnival Corp <CCL.N>, the world's leading cruise
operator, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
LINKS TO PREVIOUS CRUISE
The Grand Princess was first denied entry to San Francisco Bay on
Wednesday as it sailed back from Hawaii after state and local health
authorities learned that some passengers and crew had developed
flu-like symptoms, and that guests from an earlier cruise to Mexico
aboard the same ship later tested positive for coronavirus.
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Health authorities have said at least two, including a California
man who died, probably contracted the virus aboard the vessel. Since
then, a total of 12 coronavirus cases have been linked to the
previous Mexico trip.
California Governor Gavin Newsom had insisted the current cruise be
halted and the ship kept at sea until individuals aboard who were
sick could be tested, and diagnostic kits were flown to the ocean
liner by helicopter on Thursday.
But it took federal, state and local authorities until Sunday to
decide on a return-to-port strategy and quarantine plan for the
ship, and to work out logistics of keeping the ship and everyone
board isolated from the general public.
The U.S. Coast Guard flew medical teams to the vessel on Sunday to
assess the health of passengers and crew ahead of their arrival.
Under plans announced on Sunday, California residents were to go to
two existing quarantine sites near Sacramento and San Diego.
Out-of-state residents will be transported to two quarantine
stations in Texas and Georgia.
Newsom said on Sunday the government was arranging to repatriate
foreign cruise passengers by charter flights to their home
countries. He said they would be ferried on special buses to a
non-commercial terminal at Oakland International Airport.
The Port of Oakland, located across San Francisco Bay from the
vessel's home berth, was chosen because it was one of the few in the
region able to accommodate a large cruise liner and was deemed
relatively easy to seal off while passengers are unloaded and moved
elsewhere, Newsom said.
Princess Cruises also owns the Diamond Princess, which was
quarantined off Japan in February and was for a time the largest
cluster of coronavirus cases outside of China, where the outbreak
originated. About 700 people aboard that ship became infected, and
six have died.
(Reporting by Nathan Frandino in Oakland, California; Writing and
additional reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Additional
reporting by Norma Galeana in Los Angeles; Editing by Leslie Adler,
Sonya Hepinstall, Bill Berkrot and Cynthia Osterman)
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