Feds say they will evacuate, quarantine passengers from Grand Princess but not the crew

After tests revealed Friday 21 people aboard the Grand Princess had tested positive for COVID-19, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced they will quarantine the 1,100-member crew aboard the ship off the coast of San Francisco but will transport passengers to quarantine sites in the United States.

“It’s very likely that the crew on the Grand Princess was exposed on two different outings, and we know the coronavirus manifested among the previous passengers,” said Vice President Mike Pence, “and so we will find that out. But we will be testing everyone on the ship. We will be quarantining as necessary. But with regard to the 1,100 member crew, we anticipate that they will be quarantined on the ship, will not need to disembark.”

Pence, who has been leading a task force addressing the nation’s response to the new coronavirus, said Health and Human Services has used military bases to house evacuees in the past — Solano County’s Travis Air Force Base, Marine Corps Air Station Miramar near San Diego, Joint Air Base San Antonio-Lackland in Texas and the U.S. Army’s Fort Carson in Colorado — and the agency was working with the defense department to identify the appropriate settings.

“We want to recognize, from the experience now of two cruise ships, the cruise ships represent a unique challenge for health officials,” Pence said, “and so we would ask elderly Americans to use common sense and caution in planning any cruise ship vacation in the future.”

He said the government will be working with cruise ship companies to enhance and strengthen the screening process as passengers board and disembark.

Cruise ship passenger’s trip cut short

Michelle, a 23-year-old passenger aboard the Grand Princess ship, spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear about potential repercussions. An Illinois resident, Michelle said she is traveling with her 83-year-old grandmother and the two of them are frustrated because the captain and crew are not sharing information fast enough.

“Just now, they announced the test results (21 confirmed cases), about 20 minutes after my dad texted me the Washington Post breaking news update,” Michelle said. “Up until yesterday when we were confined to our cabins, we had access to everything on the ship — buffet, dining room, restaurants, cafes, pools, hot tubs, bars, gym, spa, basketball court, etc. As an overall experience, despite having subpar coffee on this ship, it was a dream vacation until yesterday.”

The two women flew to San Francisco from Chicago on Feb. 20 and boarded the Grand Princess on Feb. 21. Michelle said her grandmother, Hildegard Baxpehler, enjoys going on cruises and had invited her along on this one. Thanks to her grandmother’s largess, Michelle said, she was able to make her first trip to Hawaii.

She said she particularly savored seeing a humpback whale up close in Maui and taking her first trip to Waimea Canyon on Kauai, which is known as the Grand Canyon of the Pacific.

The excursion was cut short by one day, meaning the roughly 2,500 passengers missed out on a visit to Ensenada, near San Diego, she said.

“In the way of remunerations, each passenger was given a $300 credit, and those of us who purchased WiFi packages are being refunded for the past few days until the end of the cruise because WiFi was made available to everyone as soon as the news broke,” Michelle said.

Confined to their cabins

All passengers are confined to their cabins, she said, and the captain announced he has requested the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention allow passengers time on deck for air and exercise. Michelle said she learned a fair amount about coronavirus before departing on the cruise because she regularly reads international news and has an interest in public health.

She said she was surprised that they didn’t do more to screen passengers’ health.

“Princess required no medical information before boarding as I recall and conducted no medical screenings, except for the table with the forms that asked you to self report if you had traveled to China or experienced symptoms,” Michelle said. “I will admit I was surprised that they didn’t even have a person there to ask you the questions themselves.”

The coronavirus is a respiratory ailment that causes coughing, fever and shortness of breath. While symptoms are often mild in young people, those over age 60 have a tougher time beating the disease, especially if they have underlying health conditions. It can take up to 14 days for the disease to manifest.

Princess Cruise Lines, a unit of Carnival Corp., saw an explosion of coronavirus cases on its Diamond Princess cruise ship in February. Hundreds of passengers who had sailed to ports in China, Vietnam, Taiwan and Japan were confirmed to have the disease, and CNN reported that five of them have since died.

Coronavirus fears on ships

Alameda’s Christina Kerby and her mother, Bonnie Banks of Sacramento, found themselves in a similar situation when they took a cruise around Asia aboard the Holland America Line’s Westerdam cruise ship in February. It turned into a two-week ordeal at sea over fears of the novel coronavirus because no port would accept their ship. Later, public health officials reported no one aboard the Westerdam had COVID-19, saying one U.S. citizen’s test had shown a false positive.

Now back home in the Bay Area, Kerby said she feels for the passengers aboard the Grand Princess and shared advice on how to handle their time in onboard confinement.

“Lean on each other as much as possible to keep their spirits up,” she said. If passengers are able to move about the vessel, take advantage of opportunities to exercise, she said.

Most important, Kerby said: “Stay away from social media, if you can.”.

During her journey, Kerby posted a number of tweets to keep her family informed, blending humor, information and daily journaling. She built up a following of people curious about her ordeal, she said, but much of the online chatter can ratchet up anxiety for those aboard.

“Listen to doctors, not other people,” Kerby said.

A previous version of this story incorrectly identified which U.S. official described the government’s plan to quarantine crew from the Grand Princess. The story was updated at 7:20 a.m. on March, 7 to attribute the information to Vice President Mike Pence.