A cruise ship with as many as 3,000 people on board was being held offshore near San Francisco as passengers and crew experiencing coronavirus symptoms undergo tests to determine whether they might have contracted the virus, according to reports.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency Wednesday after a passenger aboard The Grand Princess cruise ship died from the virus. It was the nation’s first coronavirus death outside Washington state.
Newsom said testing kits were being flown by Coast Guard helicopter to the ship and then will be returned with samples for analysis, a process he said should produce results in hours.
“The ship will not come on shore until we appropriately assess the passengers,” Newsom said during a news conference.
Newsom said 21 people, including 11 passengers and 10 crew members, were showing flu-like symptoms and would be prioritized for testing, along with those who sailed on the previous voyage to Mexico with those who later became sick.
The testing kits were expected to be delivered Thursday morning.
Ship owner Princess Cruises said Thursday that so far there were no other confirmed cases after 100 guests had been identified for testing, according to reports from KCBS Radio in San Francisco. The station also reported the company had cancelled the ship’s next scheduled departure on Saturday.
The ship was prohibited from returning to its home port of San Francisco Wednesday from a Feb. 21 voyage to Hawaii after two passengers who traveled on the cruise to Mexico last month contracted COVID-19.
One of the patients, an elderly man from Placer County in Northern California, died this week, marking the first death from coronavirus in California. Health officials said the man had underlying health conditions and was the county’s second confirmed case of COVID-19, reported Tuesday night.
Officials said close contacts of the patient were being quarantined and monitored for the illness.
The person’s likely exposure occurred during travel on a Princess cruise ship that departed Feb. 10 from San Francisco and sailed to Mexico, returning Feb. 21, officials said.
The patient tested positive Tuesday and had been placed in isolation at Kaiser Permanente Roseville Medical Center.
The person probably had minimal community exposure between returning from the cruise and arriving at the hospital by ambulance Thursday, health officials said. Ten Kaiser Permanente health care workers and five emergency responders, who were exposed before the patient was put in isolation, are now in quarantine.
None of those 15 workers is exhibiting symptoms, officials said.
It’s possible that other cruise passengers may have been exposed, officials said. Placer County Public Health is working closely with Sacramento County Public Health and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to identify and contact other cruise passengers.
By one estimate, more than 50% of the roughly 2,500 passengers who traveled from San Francisco to Mexico and back on the cruise ship with the Placer County victim are Californians, Newsom said.
“We extend our deepest condolences to the loved ones of this patient,” Placer County health officer Dr. Aimee Sisson said. “While we have expected more cases, this death is an unfortunate milestone in our efforts to fight this disease, and one that we never wanted to see.
“While most cases of COVID-19 exhibit mild or moderate symptoms, this tragic death underscores the urgent need for us to take extra steps to protect residents who are particularly vulnerable to developing more serious illness, including elderly persons and those with underlying health conditions.”
Placer County is requesting that any other individuals who were on the Princess cruise to Mexico self-quarantine.
Princess Cruises said it was notified by the CDC that it is investigating a small cluster of cases in Northern California among guests who sailed on the Grand Princess Mexican voyage.
The company said 62 guests on that voyage remained onboard for a current trip to Hawaii. In an abundance of caution, these guests and other possible close crew contacts have been asked to remain in their staterooms until screened by the ship’s medical team. That cruise has been cut short and will return to San Francisco.
Newsom said he felt confident that the state could contain the spread of the virus from cruise passengers.
“We have the resources,” Newsom said. “We have the capacity. 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.”
Newsom said his declaration is intended to help California prepare for and contain the spread of the coronavirus by allowing state agencies to more easily procure equipment and services, share information on patients and alleviate restrictions on the use of state-owned properties and facilities.
“This proclamation, I want to point out, is not about money,” Newsom said of the emergency declaration. “It’s about resourcefulness. It’s about our ability to add tools to the tool kit.”
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.
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