Princess Cruise Ship With Virus Cases Docks in California

(Bloomberg) -- The cruise ship that spent days circling the waters off San Francisco with people sickened by the new coronavirus returned to land Monday at an isolated dock, to begin the long process of offloading passengers into quarantine.

The Grand Princess -- operated by Carnival Corp.’s Princess Cruises -- pulled into an unused dock at the Port of Oakland around noon local time, trailed by hovering news helicopters. At least 21 people on board have tested positive for the virus.

Passengers, who had been confined to their rooms since Thursday, yelled “Oakland rocks!” and “We’re back!,” on a smart-phone video posted online.

The ship’s arrival marked the end of one unexpected ordeal for the more than 3,500 people on board, and the start of another. Offloading the passengers will take two days, and once ashore, most will be whisked to military bases in California and elsewhere for testing and quarantine. The crew, meanwhile, will sail back into the Pacific Ocean, to be quarantined on the ship.

Nineteen of the people who have tested positive for the virus are crew members, while two are passengers. A California man who sailed on the ship’s prior voyage died of the virus last week, prompting state and federal officials to hold the Grand Princess offshore while they searched for a place where it could be brought to land without infecting people nearby.

The arrival Monday came with little fanfare. After the docking, personnel in orange and green vests tethered the ship to cleats. No passengers could be seen from the balconies.

The dock had been hastily prepared to receive passengers, quickly examine them, and then move them elsewhere without coming into contact with the public. Almost 11 acres of the port had been fenced off, with federal security posted on the perimeter.

Teams composed of doctors, nurses and emergency medical technicians will bring out passengers in small groups, to maintain a safe distance in case any are infected.

People showing signs of illness -- including illnesses unrelated to the new coronavirus -- will be given surgical masks and escorted off the ship on a separate gangway, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Any health-care workers interacting with the passengers, visibly ill or not, must wear a gown, gloves, mask and goggles, the department said in an update Monday.

A separate group of workers will offload baggage, with masks and gloves to guard against infection.

All passengers will be screened as they leave the vessel. Those not requiring immediate care will be moved off-site. California residents will be transfered by bus to nearby Travis Air Force Base or the Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in Southern California for 14 days of quarantine. Residents of other states will be flown to bases in Texas and Georgia.

Foreign governments were making arrangements Monday for their own citizens on the ship, with Canada reporting it had arranged a plane to bring its people home from California. Foreign nationals will be bused from the ship to a remote portion of Oakland’s airport to board chartered flights, according to the Health and Human Services Department.

--With assistance from Kartikay Mehrotra.

To contact the reporter on this story: David R. Baker in San Francisco at dbaker116@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Kara Wetzel at kwetzel@bloomberg.net, Michael Hytha, Peter Blumberg

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