Twenty-one people test positive for coronavirus aboard cruise ship off San Francisco

By Steve Gorman

 

FILE PHOTO: A California National Guard helicopter from the Moffett Federal Airfield based, 129th Rescue Wing deliver coronavirus test kits to the Grand Princess cruise ship off the coast of San Francisco, California, U.S. in this still image from a handout video taken March 5, 2020. California National Guard/Handout via REUTERS A

 

(Reuters) - Twenty-one people have tested positive for coronavirus aboard a cruise ship denied entry to San Francisco Bay this week after a number of passengers and crew developed flu-like symptoms on the vessel, which was linked to previously confirmed COVID-19 infections.

 

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, announcing results of the tests during a White House briefing, also said the cruise ship Grand Princess will be brought to an unspecified non-commercial port where all passengers and crew, about 3,500 people, will be tested for coronavirus.

 

Diagnostic test kits were flown by an Air National Guard helicopter on Thursday to the cruise ship, where medical staff took samples from 46 passengers and crew to determine if they have contracted the respiratory virus.

 

The samples were carried back to a state laboratory in the Bay area. Pence said 21 of the tests came back positive, 24 were negative and one was inconclusive.

 

In the meantime, passengers aboard the ship said they had been largely confined to their staterooms since Thursday afternoon, as the cruise line requested. One passenger who spoke on Thursday with Reuters, Kathy Reid, 67, a retiree from Granbury, Texas, said she and others felt like they were in "limbo."

 

California Governor Gavin Newsom has insisted that the ship, which had been due to return from Hawaii to its home port in San Francisco on Wednesday, remain at sea until everyone aboard who is sick or at risk of exposure to coronavirus can be tested.

 

Health officials had said on Thursday they planned to initially test 35 passengers and crew who have reported symptoms consistent with coronavirus, as well as dozens of "holdover" passengers from an earlier voyage to Mexico.

 

State and local officials acted to halt the cruise liner after learning people aboard had fallen ill and two passengers who traveled on the same vessel last month to Mexico later tested positive for coronavirus.

 

One, an elderly man from Placer County near Sacramento with underlying health conditions, died this week, marking the first documented coronavirus fatality in California. The other, from the Bay area, was described by Newsom as gravely sick.

 

Health officials say both individuals likely contracted the virus aboard the ship.

 

A third passenger from the Mexico trip, a Canadian woman from the province of Alberta, has since been reported by health officials there to have tested positive.

 

Health officials were also seeking to contact some 2,500 passengers who disembarked in San Francisco on Feb. 21 after the earlier cruise to Mexico.

 

(Reporting and writing by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Additional reporting by Cath Turner in Los Angeles and Jane Lee in San Francisco; Editing by Bill Tarrant and Daniel Wallis)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-03-07

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First the Diamond Princess, now the Grand Princess (transfered crews??) 

 - and the Mexican Cruise a Month ago!

 This timeline is getting like a pot plant full of circling roots

You need to look at this in perspective. 3500 people. Only 46 tested. 21 found infected. So that's 46% infected. I wonder how many of the 3500 are positive. 46% would be 1600...

1 minute ago, gargamon said:

You need to look at this in perspective. 3500 people. Only 46 tested. 21 found infected. So that's 46% infected. I wonder how many of the 3500 are positive. 46% would be 1600...

 

now LOS would be really panicky, if they'd actually used that same formula for their data figures

and the longer they stay afloat the more will test positive.  Ship air ventilation recirculates the stuff, food, water, etc.

Just now, gk10002000 said:

and the longer they stay afloat the more will test positive.  Ship air ventilation recirculates the stuff, food, water, etc.

yeah! think back over the good ol' bad ol' days

 - the days when the Legionnaires Disease was the big subject; when all those 'sick air' buildings copped the flack from the method of air circulation equipment on the roof... 

 

Walking the decks will have a new meaning when 

meeting people,

the end of the hand shake is very close

the return of raised hand as a greeting.

14 minutes ago, leeneeds said:

Walking the decks will have a new meaning when 

meeting people,

the end of the hand shake is very close

the return of raised hand as a 

 

This is a better idea!

“ Health officials were also seeking to contact some 2,500 passengers who disembarked in San Francisco on Feb. 21 after the earlier cruise to Mexico. “

And now a further 3,500 passengers and crew onboard who have mingled freely on their cruise ?.......hmmmm............. sounds like a floating time bomb !!

1 hour ago, tifino said:

First the Diamond Princess, now the Grand Princess (transfered crews??) 

 - and the Mexican Cruise a Month ago!

 This timeline is getting like a pot plant full of circling roots

At least the Grand Princess cases are counted as part of USA's total count.

 

The Japanese wouldn't even want to count Diamond Princess cases to their country's total. Why is that?

Edited March 7, 20206 yr by EricTh

This may well be the death of the cruise industry those cattle boats never appealed to me now an evening booze cruise dinner and dancing ok I’m  up for that 

So why did they go aboard? How stupid can you be?

By the way:  2 ships ! That company must have very positive future expectations.

I'm sure they have many bookings for their cruises.

They might consider "corona cruises" as a name change....

4 hours ago, leeneeds said:

Walking the decks will have a new meaning when 

meeting people,

It could be worse. You walk the blank if you test positive.

5 hours ago, tifino said:

First the Diamond Princess, now the Grand Princess (transfered crews??) 

 - and the Mexican Cruise a Month ago!

 This timeline is getting like a pot plant full of circling roots

I really don't get it...why those people went on a cruise after what happened on the Diamond Princess? With air travel, this planet has become very small. 

5 hours ago, car720 said:

and yet they still say it is not airborne.

yeah pretty silly.  the tiny little viruses will float and stick on anything

1 hour ago, gk10002000 said:

7 hours ago, car720 said:

and yet they still say it is not airborne.

yeah pretty silly.  the tiny little viruses will float and stick on anything

yeah... if the target can still walk on to the airliner, it will cling on tightly for the ride... 

Going on cruises these few months is like sentencing yourself to possible prison.

 

There are several countries like Japan who won't even let you disembark and get medical attention on land . They treat you like the plague.

 

So much for Hippocratic Oath

Edited March 7, 20206 yr by EricTh

20 minutes ago, EricTh said:

So much for Hippocratic Oath

The Hippocratic Oath is taken by medical professionals, not politicians.