Coronavirus Testing Begins Aboard Grand Princess
After two former passengers tested positive for the COVID-19 novel coronavirus – including one individual who has since died – the cruise ship Grand Princess has begun to take on-board control measures to prevent any potential spread of the disease. No coronavirus cases have been confirmed yet on the vessel's current voyage, but preventive measures are being taken, including coronavirus testing and a quarantine for identified high-risk individuals.
According to Princess Cruises, there are less than 100 guests and crew on board who have been identified for coronavirus testing. This group includes:
– guests who are currently under care for respiratory illness;
– guests and crew who have experienced flu-like symptoms;
– and the 62 guests who have been on board since the previous voyage, overlapping with the two known cases.
At a press conference Wednesday afternoon, California Gov. Gavin Newsom said that at least 21 people on board – 10 crewmembers and 11 passengers – have developed symptoms.
To facilitate testing, the U.S. Coast Guard is delivering sampling kits to the ship on Thursday via helicopter. The Grand Princess medical team will administer the test and the samples will be sent in batches by helicopter to a lab in Richmond, California. In the interim, these individuals have been asked to stay in their staterooms.
No passengers will be allowed to disembark in San Francisco until the testing has been completed. As of Thursday morning, the Grand Princess had slowed from 20 knots to 16 knots and was still making way for California.
Search for former passengers under way
About 2,500 passengers were aboard the vessel during the previous voyage, and about half were California residents. Since they may have been exposed to COVID-19, California's county-level public health officials are now involved in an effort to contact them and evaluate their status.
“I’m not naive about the scope of literally hundreds and hundreds of people, but we have the capacity to do this,” Gov. Newsom said Wednesday. “By this evening, we will have contacted every county health official that has someone who came off this cruise. They will have their contact information and begin a process to contact those individuals.”
California already has more than 50 confirmed cases of the disease in 12 counties, making it the most affected U.S. state.
According to former passengers from the affected cruise, Princess Cruises has reached out by email in an attempt to inform them of their potential exposure. The cruise line says that it has shared essential travel and health details with the CDC so that the agency can work with local entities to follow up with the former passengers.
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