Twenty-one people aboard the Grand Princess cruise ship tested positive for coronavirus, Vice President Mike Pence said Friday.
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.
The Grand Princess had been in limbo off the California coast with thousands aboard since Wednesday and the California Air National Guard dropped off test kits by helicopter to the ship on Thursday, when officials learned that a California man who’d traveled on that ship last month contracted coronavirus and died this week.
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.”
Coronavirus testing kits are dropped Thursday to the Grand Princess cruise ship off the California coast.
Coronavirus testing kits are dropped Thursday to the Grand Princess cruise ship off the California coast.
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.
The ship was diverted toward San Francisco on Wednesday — with a planned stop in Mexico canceled — after the California man’s death in Placer County. His was the first coronavirus fatality outside Washington state in an outbreak that’s killed 14 people nationwide.
The man, who hasn’t been named publicly, was 71 and had underlying health conditions, Placer County health officials said. He was likely exposed to the virus on a Grand Princess cruise between February 11 and 21 from San Francisco to Mexico.
Shortly after the Grand Princess finished its Mexico trip last month, it started the latest cruise, with some people from the February cruise remaining on the ship for the current cruise.
