Grand Princess parked at sea off San Francisco

UPDATE: 06 March 1500 HRS Pacific Time - 21 aboard the ship have been confirmed as having COVID-19. The US Coast Guard will be directing the next steps of the ship as it comes ashore and passengers and crew are dealt with in a comprehensive plan - according to Vice President Pence. There is no ETA for the ship in San Francisco at this time.

Princess Cruises President Jan Swartz offered an update via video message shared on Twitter:

Princess Cruises can’t catch a break between coronavirus and norovirus affecting their ships. The latest ship to fall into the bullseye of health scrutiny is the Grand Princess who has been ordered to remain at sea off the coast of California, awaiting permission to dock in San Francisco.

Today, 05 March 2020, California Governor Gavin Newsom advises, “We are going to be flying testing kits to the cruise ship, and we are going to be sending those quickly back to the state. We’ll be able to test very quickly within just a few hours.”

What precipitated this putting the ship into at-sea limbo lays with the fact that a one previous passenger on the Grand Princess voyage that sailed to/from San Francisco February 11-21 was found to have COVID-19 and succumbed to the disease. A second passenger on that same cruise has been declared presumptively positive and resident in Sonoma County, CA.

While Princess Cruise notes that they have NO COVID-19 cases on board the Grand Princess, there are 21 people (11 passengers and 10 crew) who are showing symptoms (the testing will determine if it is COVID-19 or another respiratory issue.

The California National Guard drops off the COVID-19 test kits (300 in total) to the ship via helicopter. Four members of the guard and one from the CDC were hoisted down onto the ship.

Grand Princess Update via Princess Cruises

While there are no confirmed cases of COVID-19 currently on board, the CDC has identified groups of guests and crew who will be tested before arrival into San Francisco.

There are fewer than 100 guests and crew identified for testing, including all in-transit guests (guests who sailed the previous Mexico voyage and remained on board for the current Hawaii voyage), those guests and crew who have experienced influenza-like illness symptoms on this voyage, and guests currently under care for respiratory illness.

To facilitate this testing, the U.S. Coast Guard will deliver sampling kits to the ship the morning of March 5 via helicopter. Our onboard medical team will administer the test and the samples will be sent in batches by helicopter to a lab in Richmond, California, across the bay from San Francisco.

Public health officials have advised that no guests will be permitted to disembark until all results have been received. Out of an abundance of caution, all guests who have been identified for testing have been asked to remain in their staterooms. We will continue to proceed under the guidance of the U.S. CDC and local authorities.

Princess Cruise Lines notice

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