‘Totally freaked out’: Grand Princess passengers share coronavirus fears; 1,406 disembark
The Grand Princess cruise ship, which finally docked in California and allowed just over 400 people to disembark Monday, had disembarked a total of 1,406 passengers as of 7 p.m. Tuesday.
When it set sail, the ship was carrying 2,421 passengers and 1,113 crew members.
The 407 who disembarked Monday include two travelers who tested positive for coronavirus on Friday. They were taken to hospitals along with their travel companions while 19 crew members who have tested positive “have been deemed asymptomatic” and remain on the ship in isolated cabins, the company stated in a press release Tuesday.
Princess Cruises said Health and Human Services teams have been on board the Grand Princess to assist with medical screenings and interviews and have prioritized those who require the most medical attention and care.
Earlier Tuesday, some guests said they felt uneasy about the disembarkation process.
North Carolina resident Donna LaGesse has no idea when she will get off. Her traveling companion, sister-in-law Jackie Eilers from Colorado, knows only slightly more. She received a luggage tag Tuesday afternoon, signaling that she will be getting off the ship soon. She’s waiting for her group to be called to disembark, but she doesn’t know when that will be.
“We haven’t received any information. … We have not received anything in writing or anything like that to say where we’re going or if we’re even leaving today,” LaGesse told USA TODAY on Tuesday.
While LaGesse isn’t thrilled with the idea of entering into quarantine back on land, she understands the need to do so. The bigger problem is the uncertainty. LaGesse is worried that she and Eilers will be separated and sent to different quarantine facilities once they leave the ship, a notion bolstered by the fact that she did not receive a luggage tag when Eilers did.
That is a possibility. According Princess Cruises’ Tuesday press release, “once they disembark, American guests will be transferred to either Travis Air Force Base in Solano County, California; Miramar Marine Corps Air Station in San Diego; Lackland Air Force Base in Bexar County, Texas; or Dobbins Air Reserve Base in Marietta, Georgia.”
Other passengers on board are frustrated and worried, too.
“We’re trying to stay calm and we’re trying to stay positive but it’s getting harder and harder. They can’t make up their minds how to keep us safe,” Beryl Ward, 77, of Santa Fe, told the Associated Press.
Princess said in its Tuesday release, “Once disembarkation of the guests is completed, remaining crew members will remain onboard and Grand Princess will depart from San Francisco Bay. Plans for a crew quarantine are still being determined.”
More than 200 Canadian passengers disembarked Monday and were flown to a military base in Ontario.
British passengers from the Grand Princess cruise ship are returning to the U.K. on a U.S. flight.
Late Tuesday, 135 British passengers boarded a flight from the Oakland Airport at 11:15 p.m. PT and are expected to arrive at Birmingham Airport, the United Kingdom Foreign and Commonwealth office announced Wednesday morning.
Meanwhile, Carolyn Wright, 63, said on Monday that she observed that passengers, who had been ordered to isolate in their rooms and stay at least 6 feet apart when on deck, were being herded closely together as they lined up to be processed by people in protective clothing.
“They were queuing up the passengers like cattle,” Wright, of Santa Fe, New Mexico, said. “Everybody was bunched up. They were physically touching each other and they were backed up along the gangplank.” Then, she said, they were taken away in chartered buses.
“I’m just totally freaked out by that,” said Wright. “It’s outrageous. If that’s safe, then why were we stuck in our rooms? It’s been stressed for the past five days that we’re not to have any contact with any other passengers.”
The remaining passengers and crew were treated to breakfast and lunch from Chef José Andres’ nonprofit World Central Kitchen, which provided the same services to people quarantined on Diamond Princess in Japan last month.
Some passengers head to the Travis Air Force Base in Northern California
Beginning Monday, bus loads of Grand Princess passengers were taken to the Travis Air Force Base, located near Fairfield, California.
“Yesterday we brought in 170 passengers from the ship,” James Mason, public affairs officer for the U.S. Public Health Service Incident Management Team, told USA TODAY by email late Tuesday. “Our goal for today was to bring an additional 810 passengers today (Tuesday).”
Mason estimated that 10 bus loads had arrived thus far with 40 passengers on each bus, totaling roughly 400 arrivals to the base Tuesday. Transport of cruise passengers to the base, though, were to continue into the night, he said.
A group of passengers with mild symptoms are taken to Asilomar
Up to 24 individuals who disembarked the cruise ship are being relocated to a cluster of buildings on the Asilomar State Beach and Conference Grounds in Pacific Grove, according to an update from the California Health and Human Services Office of Public Information late Tuesday. The Grand Princess passengers will be temporarily housed in buildings that are removed from visitors and the public, and will not interact with other Asilomar guests, employees or the general public.
None of those individuals are known to have contracted the coronavirus, but “because they have mild symptoms that do not require hospitalization, they cannot be quarantined at Travis Air Force Base,” according to the state agency.
“These residents have endured a lot of stress in the last few days, and our top priority is to protect their health – and the public health of California – until they can return to their homes,” said California Health and Human Services Agency Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly. “We understand people across California are concerned about novel coronavirus, and that’s why we’re collaborating with our federal partners to ensure that the community surrounding Asilomar is not impacted.”
Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio readies for quarantine, again
Lackland Air Force Base, in San Antonio, Texas, is preparing to host its third cohort of quarantined visitors.
In early February, the base took in about 91 citizens repatriated from Wuhan, China, the epicenter of the virus. About two weeks later, city officials estimate Lackland received approximately 140 American passengers from the Diamond Princess cruise ship, which had been quarantined off the coast of Japan. Now, a week after that group finished quarantine and headed home, more than 300 passengers from Grand Princess are on their way.
Joe Smith, public information officer for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, got to San Antonio Monday night to prepare for their arrival. But as of Tuesday afternoon, he didn’t know when the passengers would show up.
“We’re getting in about 380 passengers,” Smith told USA TODAY. “We keep getting differing times. We know they haven’t left California right now.”
Smith, whose CDC team is acting in an advisory capacity with personnel from the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) from the Department of Health and Human Services, said it will take at least two aircraft to bring the passengers to Lackland.
The quarantine clock hasn’t started ticking for them yet, though they will have been screened twice by the time they enter the facility: once after leaving the ship and again upon arrival in Texas.
“The passengers who are well will stay on this base for a 14-day quarantine starting from when they receive a quarantine order,” he explained. “That quarantine order takes place within 24 to 48 hours of arrival.”
And despite the fact that they are now on their third group of quarantine subjects, he and his CDC colleagues aren’t feeling overwhelmed, either.
“Our teams are trained for this type of situation and find tremendous satisfaction in helping Americans this way,” said Smith. “They join HHS to make a difference and helping repatriate citizens is a very tangible way to see public health put into action.”
Passengers file $1M lawsuit against Princess
Meanwhile, two passengers have already filed a lawsuit against Princess.
Ronald and Eva Weissberger, current Grand Princess cruise passengers and Broward County, Florida, residents, are suing for negligence and seeking more than $1 million in damages. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in the Central District of California, Los Angeles, blames Princess Cruises for not taking “all necessary precautions to keep its passengers and crew” safe following the spread of the coronavirus on the company’s Diamond Princess cruise ship last month.
The plaintiffs allege they wouldn’t have gone on the ship if they were aware of the “actual risk exposure.”
“Princess has been sensitive to the difficulties the COVID-19 outbreak has caused to our guests and crew. Our response throughout this process has focused on well-being our guests and crew within the parameters mandated on us by the government agencies involved and the evolving medical understanding of this new illness,” according to a statement provided by Negin Kamali, a spokesperson for Princess Cruises. “We (have) not been served with any lawsuit relating to this matter, and we will not comment on any pending litigation.”
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