OAKLAND, Calif., March 9 (Reuters) – The cruise ship Grand Princess, barred last week from returning to its home port of San Francisco and facing quarantine due to a coronavirus outbreak on board, arrived at a temporary berth on Monday in the nearby Port of Oakland to the cheers of its passengers.
The 2,400 cruise guests, who have been largely confined to their staterooms since Thursday, are to begin disembarking on Monday for transport to healthcare facilities or quarantine stations, depending on whether they need immediate medical attention.
Except for those with acute illness, the 1,100 crew members are to remain aboard the vessel, which will depart the Port of Oakland as soon as possible to be quarantined for two weeks in an as-yet undisclosed location outside San Francisco Bay, officials said.
Video footage shot by one of the arriving cruise guests and shared with Reuters showed passengers cheering from their stateroom balconies and open windows, some shouting, “We’re home!” as the vessel passed beneath the Golden Gate Bridge into the bay.
California Governor Gavin Newsom said on Sunday the U.S. government was arranging to repatriate foreign cruise passengers by charter flights to their home countries.
He said those individuals would be ferried on special buses to a non-commercial terminal at Oakland International Airport to board planes from the tarmac to avoid contact with the public.
The Port of Oakland, located across San Francisco Bay from the vessel’s home berth, was chosen because it was one of few in the region able to accommodate a large cruise liner and was deemed relatively easy to seal off while passengers are unloaded and moved elsewhere, Newsom said.
The temporary berth was prepared on a secured 10-acre site in the outer harbor area for the ship’s arrival. (Reporting by Nathan Frandino in Oakland, California; Writing and additional reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles Editing by Leslie Adler and Sonya Hepinstall)
(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2019.This article contains reporting from Reuters, published under license.
Sign up for gCaptain’s newsletter and never miss an update
Essential maritime and offshore news, insights, and updates delivered daily straight to your inbox
The U.S. Department of Justice has indicted four of the world’s largest shipping container manufacturers and seven senior executives in what prosecutors describe as a sweeping global conspiracy to restrict...
Federal investigators are probing whether Chinese container manufacturing giants deliberately throttled global shipping container production just before the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a CBS News report that could reignite concerns...
A massive landslide in Alaska’s Tracy Arm fjord triggered one of the tallest tsunamis ever recorded, sending water 481 meters—about 1,578 feet—up the opposite wall of the fjord in what...
Subscribe to gCaptain Daily and stay informed with the latest global maritime and offshore news
Essential news coupled with the finest maritime content sourced from across the globe.
Sign Up
Join The Club
