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A total of 46 people on the ship were tested with 21 testing positive for the infection, 24 were negative and one was inconclusive, Pence said during a Coronavirus Task Force press briefing.
Of the 21 people who tested positive, 19 were crew members of the ship and two were passengers.
Passengers on the ship found out about the test results from Pence’s press briefing, according to a video from a passenger on the ship.
“We apologize but we were not given advance notice of this announcement by the US federal government,” according to an announcement broadcast on the ship and recorded on the video. “It would have been our preference to be the first to make this news available to you.”
Pence said Friday he’s working with California Gov. Gavin Newsom, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Health and Human Services to develop a plan for the Grand Princess to return to a “non-commercial port.”
“All passengers and crew will be tested for the coronavirus,” Pence said. “Those that need to be quarantined will be quarantined. Those that require additional medical attention will receive it.”
There are more than 3,500 people aboard the Grand Princess — 2,422 guests and 1,111 crew members, Princess Cruises said. They represent 54 nationalities.
As of Friday afternoon, California had 56 positive confirmed cases of coronavirus and one death.
A two-week trip is cut short
The Grand Princess was on a two-week trip from San Francisco to Hawaii and was scheduled to return Saturday.
Some of those identified for testing included several who were on the Mexico voyage with the victim. At least six passengers who disembarked from that February trip tested positive, including the man who died. The latest person to be infected was a Ventura County resident who has been quarantined at home with mild symptoms, according to county officials.
No guests were allowed to disembark until all test results were received, Princess Cruises said in a statement.
The captain advised passengers Thursday night that more people than the initial 45 may be tested on Friday, according to a video clip CNN obtained from inside the ship from passenger Teresa Duncan Johnson.
Though all guests have been asked to stay in their rooms, “we’re in discussions with the CDC regarding time for guests to access the open deck for fresh air and exercise,” the captain says, referring to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
A race to trace possible infections
Newsom has declared a state of emergency, saying local health officials are working with their federal counterparts to trace people who had contact with the man who died.
Princess Cruises has shared relevant data with the CDC to help notify state and county health officials, who will follow up with anyone who may have been exposed to coronavirus, cruise line officials said.
“Cruise ships are posing probably one of the biggest challenges that we are seeing in this outbreak,” said Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo, infectious diseases director at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
“We know these cruise ships are essentially … we’ve been calling them incubators, they are incredibly very healthy environments for the pathogens that we’re talking about.”
Another cruise ship was linked to the virus
“The problem with the Diamond (Princess) cruise ship, as we’ve learned, was that when you quarantine people like that, with a few possible infected people, the likelihood of infecting many more people goes up,” CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta said.
A top Japanese government adviser has said the quarantine of the Diamond Princess “may not have been perfect.”
Infected crew members may have passed on infections to other crew members or guests, said Dr. Norio Ohmagari, director of the Disease Control and Prevention Center at Japan’s National Center for Global Health and Medicine.
It’s impossible to fully isolate staff members during a cruise ship quarantine, other said.
“Unfortunately, to maintain daily life of the more than 3,700 passenger cruise, we needed help, we needed support from cruise members to maintain the daily life,” said Yosuke Kita of Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.
US infection cases are going up
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