Almost 1,000 passengers who are California residents will be sent to Travis Air Force Base, about 50 miles northeast of San Francisco, and Miramar Naval Air Station near San Diego, for a 14-day quarantine. Those from other states will be quarantined at Joint Base San Antonio Lackland in Texas or Dobbins Air Force Base in Georgia.
The crew will be isolated and treated aboard the ship, which will depart Oakland soon after disembarking passengers and remain at a different location for the staff’s quarantine, the Office of Emergency Services said.
The global cruise industry is facing a moment of reckoning from the coronavirus, with the State Department’s warning a further blow striking at one of its key markets for passengers, the U.S.
A backlash has been brewing in Asia for the past month, with luxury liners refused permission to dock from a number of locations. Malaysia went a step further at the weekend, banning cruise ships altogether from its ports. The Southeast Asian country’s Director General of Health Noor Hisham Abdullah said its health ministry won’t allow any cruise to dock until “the spread of the virus is contained,” in a Facebook posting March 8.
Thailand, meanwhile, is empowering port officials to decide on the spot whether to allow ships to dock or disembark. The country turned away Costa Cruise’s Costa Fortuna on Friday because it had passengers from Italy. Malaysia turned the same boat away on Saturday. Singapore, the Costa Fortuna’s home port, will accept the ship when it returns as scheduled on March 10.
The Westerdam, another Carnival-owned ship, was rebuffed from five ports last month, and floated in limbo for two weeks before eventually being allowed to berth in Cambodia. One passenger from the ship tested positive for coronavirus as she journeyed home. In Japan, authorities have been criticized for their handling of the Diamond Princess, with some passengers allowed to disembark and mix freely in the country after disembarking from the quarantined ship. Cases on board appeared to balloon during the lockdown period, as well.
The Grand Princess, which traveled from San Francisco to Mexico in mid-February, appears to be hot spot for the spread of the virus in California. The state’s first, and only, confirmed Covid-19 fatality so far involves a Placer County man who was on the ship last month. On Friday, Placer County public health officials confirmed three new cases, all related to the cruise ship.
Representative Lloyd Doggett of Texas, whose district includes the Lackland base in San Antonio, said his community had been “placed on the front lines of this pandemic without adequate federal support.”
“It is essential that these additional evacuees be confined to Lackland for all testing and treatment rather than burdening local hospitals,” the Democratic lawmaker said in a statement.
--With assistance from K. Oanh Ha and Yudith Ho.