Cruise ship to anchor in Monterey Tuesday

MONTEREY — A cruise ship will be anchoring in Monterey Bay Tuesday with no restrictions on passengers disembarking on the Monterey Peninsula.

The MS Amadea’s last port prior to dropping anchor in Monterey was San Francisco. It will be in Monterey for one day before getting underway en route to Santa Barbara.

The ship’s prior itinerary included stops in Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Mexico and other ports in Central and South America– no travel in the recent past were in any high-risk for coronavirus destinations.

“We take the current health scare very seriously,” said Monterey City Manager Hans Uslar. “We are taking proactive and appropriate steps with guidance from the CDC and Coast Guard to assess cruise ship visits during the current COVID-19 outbreak. Amadea passengers and crew currently meet the criteria by the CDC for travel.”

The Monterey County Health Department is the lead agency providing protocols for addressing any potential local cases of coronavirus. The health department is taking its cues from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the California Department of Public Health.

“The CDC has not implemented travel restrictions on bus and train stations or maritime vessels such as cruise ships entering U.S. ports at this time,” said Dr. Edward Moreno, the county’s Director of Public Health. “The best thing we can do right now is to continue effective handwashing, cover your coughs and sneezes, and stay home if you are sick.”

The only travel advisories in place at this time are for travelers to avoid nonessential travel to Italy, South Korea, Iran, and China, as well as suggesting that travelers reconsider cruise ship voyages to or within Asia. But there are, as of Monday, 58 countries with confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus with Saudi Arabia confirming its first case Monday.

The city of Monterey has set up a web page with facts sheets and links from the County of Monterey and the CDC on COVID-19 prevention and response at www.monterey.org/coronavirus

Monterey is also creating an internal task force to remain vigilant and keep staff and the public informed about local impacts on a regular basis until the virus is contained, Uslar said.