The Grand Princess cruise ship arrived at the Port in Oakland on Monday, marking the beginning of a high-stakes operation to remove passengers who might have contracted coronavirus and process them into quarantine zones.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has said aggressive steps have been taken to get the passengers off the boat without jeopardizing the public health. Most will eventually be sent to two military bases in the state.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director of the World Health Organization, citing the spread of cases around the world, said Monday that “the threat of a pandemic has become very real.”
He noted that the virus has now infected 100,000 people in 100 countries, but said it is still possible to control the virus through united government action.
“We are not at the mercy of the virus,” he added.
Asian countries that have turned the corner on the virus have shown that even countries with huge outbreaks can control the disease’s spread, Tedros said, adding that government leaders have a responsibility to take action swiftly, especially in countries with major outbreaks.
“This is an uneven epidemic at the global level,” he said. “Different countries are in different scenarios, requiring a tailored response.”
Tedros said countries with community spread need to consider the most drastic actions, including closing schools and canceling mass gatherings. All countries need to do contact tracing, emphasize the importance of hand hygiene and social distancing and engage the public, he said.
“For all countries, the aim is the same: stop transmission and prevent the spread of the virus,” he said.
As the number of coronavirus cases in California hit 114, state public health department officials issued guidelines for how event organizers should prepare for mass gatherings. While officials did not explicitly instruct the cancellation of any event, they did advise organizers to consider doing so for events predominantly attended by older or at-risk individuals and more than 500 nationally as officials struggled to contain the virus. Several schools in California were closed Monday due to the virus, and Stanford University went to online classes. Meanwhile, the city of San Francisco is preparing for a possible outbreak amid an increase in confirmed cases.
An oil price war triggered by the spreading coronavirus sent already anxious financial markets into chaos Monday, with stocks diving and crude prices collapsing in a worldwide panic that threatens a global economic recession.
Of the 2,500 passengers aboard the ship, those in need of immediate medical care or those with preexisting medical conditions will get off the ship first on Monday followed by California residents. Before disembarking, they will have their temperatures taken and be assessed for either transfer or treatment at regional medical facilities or quarantine at state military bases.
Passengers with immediate medical needs, which could extend beyond cases of those suspected of having coronavirus, will disembark first. The captain also said those leaving immediately have already received written notification and luggage tags.
Earlier, Princess Cruises announced it would offer a full refund to everyone on board, and a credit for a future cruise.
People who live out of state will be taken to federal facilities closer to their homes. Foreigners will be repatriated to their home countries, according to the plan.
Newsom said at a news conference in Oakland on Sunday that the disembarkation and transfer of passengers would take up to three days.
But he warned that the situation was “fluid” and could take longer, in part because the port does not regularly deal with cruise ships, and tides and currents allowed only small windows of time to enter and leave.
When finished, the Grand Princess would sail out of San Francisco Bay, he said, with the remaining 1,094 crew members — mostly foreign nationals — to be quarantined on board.
It is unclear how deeply the virus spread aboard the ship. Several days ago, the Coast Guard sent 45 tests, and 21 came back positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus.
The virus first infected an unknown number of passengers aboard the previous voyage on the ship, a round-trip sail from San Francisco to various ports on Mexico’s Pacific Coast, between Feb. 11 and Feb. 21. Seventy of those guests held over for the next voyage, from San Francisco to Hawaii and back.
The remaining guests, including 1,540 Californians, simply disembarked with no knowledge of an outbreak aboard. Twelve of them have tested positive in the state, and one man later died, in Placer County.
While state and federal health officials are still reaching out to and trying to monitor those earlier passengers, those aboard the Hawaii trip will be tightly isolated, authorities said.