Passengers plod off coronavirus-stricken cruise ship in face masks in
California
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[March 11, 2020]
By Steve Gorman
(Reuters) - Hundreds of travelers who
boarded a cruise liner for Hawaii last month in sandals and sunglasses
trudged off the coronavirus-stricken ship in face masks at the Port of
Oakland, California, on Tuesday, headed to quarantine sites around the
country.
The tightly controlled disembarkation began on Monday, hours after the
cruise ship Grand Princess arrived at a specially secured terminal
across San Francisco Bay from its home port amid cheers from weary
passengers who had spent days at sea confined to their staterooms.
As of Tuesday evening, according to the cruise line, more than 1,400
passengers had left the ship. They were seen filing down a gangway
wearing surgical masks, escorted to chartered buses by personnel dressed
in full protective gear.
Addressing a news conference on Tuesday in Sacramento, the state
capital, Governor Gavin Newsom said he hoped to finish getting all 2,400
some passengers off the ship within 72 hours.

Plans originally called for the 1,100 crew members, except those
requiring immediate medical care, to remain aboard the Grand Princess
when it leaves port for a two-week quarantine period at sea.
But Newsom told reporters that some crew members, many from the
Philippines, may end up repatriated to their home countries instead.
Among the first people off the ship were 26 U.S. residents taken by
ambulance to hospitals around the region, including two passengers
diagnosed with coronavirus during on-board testing last week that also
found 19 crew members infected, Newsom said.
Princess Cruises, the ship's owner-operator, said those crew members
were deemed asymptomatic and confined to their individual cabins.
QUARANTINE AT BASES
All remaining U.S. passengers will be tested once they reach quarantine
housing at one of four military bases - two in California and one each
in Texas and Georgia.
A group of 232 Canadians, the biggest cohort of non-U.S. passengers,
were repatriated on Monday, Newsom said.
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Passengers from the Grand Princess cruise ship, which docked in
Oakland, arrive for quarantine at Joint Base San Antonio Lackland in
San Antonio, Texas, U.S. March 10, 2020, after a number of
passengers on the cruise were tested positive for the COVID-19
coronavirus. REUTERS/Go Nakamura

The Grand Princess was denied entry to San Francisco Bay last
Wednesday en route back from Hawaii as authorities learned some
passengers and crew had developed flu-like symptoms, and that
patrons from an earlier cruise to Mexico aboard the same ship had
tested positive for coronavirus. Since then, at least 12 cases have
been linked to the previous Mexico trip.
Diagnostic kits were flown to the ocean liner by helicopter on
Thursday to test those who were ill. The 21 positive test results on
Friday constituted one of the largest clusters of cases documented
in the United States.
But it took authorities until Sunday to decide on a return-to-port
strategy and quarantine plan for the ship.
Princess Cruises also owns the Diamond Princess, which was
quarantined off Japan in February. About 700 people aboard that ship
became infected, and six have died, in a crisis that experts said
was mishandled by Japanese bureaucrats.
Newsom, echoing advice from public health experts, said elderly
people and individuals with chronic health problems - two groups
most vulnerable to serious illness if infected by coronavirus -
should stay off cruise ships.
Princess, a unit a world-leading cruise operator Carnival Corp <CCL.N>,
said on Monday that passengers of the ill-fated voyage to Hawaii
would receive a refund for all costs related to the trip and a
credit toward a future cruise.

At least one couple aboard the Grand Princess sued the company even
before reaching dry land, seeking over $1 million in damages for
emotional trauma they said they suffered during the ordeal.
(Reporting by Steve Gorman; Editing by Bill Tarrant, Leslie Adler
and Lincoln Feast.)
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