Princess Cruises ship held up off California coast with sick passengers

[PA Democrat]

A Princess Cruises ship that recently carried people who have tested positive for the novel coronavirus was being held in waters off California late Wednesday as officials sent kits to test passengers and crew members showing symptoms of the illness after one of its passengers who left the ship died Wednesday.

At a hearing Thursday morning before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, Ken Cuccinelli, a senior official of the Department Homeland Security, said that kits to test most passengers were being brought by helicopter and would then be dropped onto the ship. “We have been working on it for days,” he said.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) said during an earlier news conference that he had asked that the Grand Princess, which left San Francisco on Feb. 21 for a voyage to Hawaii, avoid returning to the state until testing could be completed.

On Wednesday night, he said 21 people — 11 passengers and 10 crew members — were symptomatic and would be prioritized for testing, along with those who sailed on the previous voyage to Mexico with those who later became sick.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2020/03/05/coronavirus-live-updates/#link-GZHFKX2SNZFKLDQ4GMGREQUVDA

[BusyBeingBest]

1. Would not take a cruise right now.

Floating Petri dish.

[Mz Pip]

2. I have a friend on that ship.

She’s pretty upbeat, so far. They’re staying in their cabin watching movies.

[SoCalNative]

3. As do I

He's making the best of it and being upbeat. He's ex-Royal Navy so guess it probably doesn't phase him as much as it might others.

[PA Democrat]

4. I hope this gets handled better than the Diamond Princess was.

I wish your friend and her fellow passengers all the best.

[dewsgirl]

5. Your friend wouldnt happen to be one of the ladies would it?

They seem very nice, but it's a rough watch,16 minutes of the lady on the left coughing her way through, stating she is sick, but she doesnt have that. I watched all of the UK couple David and Sally from the Diamond Princess pre diagnosis videos, they would cough once or twice in a video, somehow it was still a surprise when the test came back positive.

[Crunchy Frog]

6. So it had sick people on it and they brought on more people for another cruise?

I don't know if I'm reading this correctly, but if so then WTF?

[PA Democrat]

7. I think that several passengers on the previous cruise had been diagnosed with

coronavirus after returning to California. Crew members would have been exposed and may have passed the virus on to passengers on the next cruise.

The cruise line said Wednesday that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was investigating a “small cluster” of cases of the virus among people in Northern California who took a cruise on the Grand Princess from San Francisco to Mexico between Feb. 11 and 21. It did not say how many people were included in that cluster, and the CDC did not respond to questions late Wednesday.

Princess Cruises also owns the Diamond Princess, which spent much of February quarantined in Japan. More than 700 people who were on that ship were infected and seven have died.

Health departments in Placer and Sonoma counties in Northern California each announced one case of the virus among people who were on the voyage in recent days; one of those people has since died, Placer County Public Health said Wednesday, the first coronavirus-related death in California.

Officials in Placer County said that person’s “exposure likely occurred during international travel on a Princess cruise ship that departed from San Francisco to Mexico — the same Feb. 11-21 cruise associated with a confirmed Sonoma County case announced previously.” The cruise line confirmed the person who died was a 71-year-old man.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2020/03/04/princess-cruises-ship-held-up-off-california-coast-awaiting-coronavirus-tests/