Cruise ship hit by virus to dock in Oakland, California

San Francisco

A cruise ship that was hit by the new coronavirus is headed to the port of Oakland, California, the captain told passengers Saturday night.

Grand Princess Capt. John Smith, in a recording provided by passenger Laurie Miller of San Jose, told guests the ship will dock in Oakland. Princess Cruises says it’s expected to arrive on Monday. The ship is carrying more than 3,500 people from 54 countries, The Associated Press (AP) reported.

“An agreement has been reached to bring our ship into the port of Oakland,” he said. “After docking, we will then begin a disembarkation process specified by federal authorities that will take several days.

Guests who require acute medical treatment and hospitalization will be transported to health care facilities in California.”

After medical screening, California residents who don’t require acute medical care “will go to a federally operated isolation facility within California for testing and isolation,” Smith said.

U.S. guests from other states will be transported by the federal government to facilities in other states. Crew will be quarantined and treated aboard the ship.

The Grand Princess had been forbidden to dock in San Francisco amid evidence that the vessel was the breeding ground for a cluster of nearly 20 cases that resulted in at least one death after its previous voyage.

On Friday, Vice President Michael Pence spoke of plans for the people on the Grand Princess cruise ship.

“Those that will need to be quarantined will be quarantined. Those who will require medical help will receive it,” Pence said.

President Donald Trump, speaking Friday at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, said he would prefer not to allow the passengers onto American soil but will defer to the recommendations of medical experts.

“I don’t need to have the numbers (of U.S. cases) double because of one ship that wasn’t our fault,” Trump said while touring the CDC in Atlanta. “And it wasn’t the fault of the people on the ship either. OK? It wasn’t their fault either. And they are mostly American, so I can live either way with it.”