‘Totally freaked out’: Grand Princess passengers express concerns over coronavirus, lawsuit filed
The Grand Princess cruise ship, which finally docked in California and allowed several hundred people disembark Monday, made plans to unload more passengers on Tuesday – though some guests feel uneasy about the disembarkation process.
Donna LaGesse and her sister-in-law, Jackie Eilers, who are traveling from North Carolina and Colorado, respectively, say they still haven’t heard what will happen to them.
“We haven’t received any information. We understand that we are going one of two places probably but we have not received anything in writing or anything like that to say where we’re going or if we’re even leaving today,” LaGesse told USA TODAY on Tuesday.
They feel like they’re in limbo – they don’t know why they haven’t been informed about what happens next.
While LaGesse isn’t thrilled with the idea of entering into quarantine back on land, she understands the need to do so. The bigger problem is the uncertainty. LaGesse says she is scared that she and Eilers will be separated when they leave the ship.
That is a possibility: U.S. passengers departing the Port of Oakland will be bused or flown to bases in California, Texas and Georgia for testing and a 14-day quarantine.
Other passengers on board are frustrated and worried, too.
“We’re trying to stay calm and we’re trying to stay positive but it’s getting harder and harder. They can’t make up their minds how to keep us safe,” Beryl Ward, 77, of Santa Fe, told the Associated Press.
The remaining passengers and crew were treated to breakfast and lunch from Chef José Andres’ non-profit World Central Kitchen, which provided the same services to people quarantined on Diamond Princess in Japan last month.
“The @WCKitchen team is working into the night as we get breakfast loaded onto the #GrandPrincess and prepare for lunch delivery early tomorrow!” Andrés wrote on Twitter late Monday night.
Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio readies for quarantine, again
Lackland Air Force Base, in San Antonio, Texas, is preparing to host its third cohort of quarantined visitors.
In early February, the base took in about 91 citizens repatriated from Wuhan, China, the epicenter of the virus. About two weeks later, city officials estimate Lackland received approximately 140 American passengers from the Diamond Princess cruise ship, which had been quarantined off the coast of Japan. Now, a week after that group finished quarantine and headed home, more than 300 passengers from Grand Princess are on their way.
Joe Smith, public information officer for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, got to San Antonio Monday night to prepare for their arrival. But as of Tuesday afternoon, he didn’t know when the passengers would show up.
“We’re getting in about 350 passengers,” Smith told USA TODAY. “We keep getting differing times. We know they haven’t left California right now.”
He said it will take at least two aircraft to bring the passengers to Lackland.
The quarantine clock hasn’t started ticking for them yet, though they will have been screened twice by the time they enter the facility: once after leaving the ship and again upon arrival in Texas.
“The passengers who are well will stay on this base for a 14-day quarantine starting from when they receive a quarantine order,” he explained. “That quarantine order takes place within 24 to 48 hours of arrival.”
Those that test positive for the virus will be taken elsewhere, though Smith doesn’t know where yet. While he says the team there doesn’t anticipate many positive cases, they’re prepared for that possibility.
And despite the fact that they are now on their third group of quarantine subjects, he and his CDC colleagues aren’t feeling overwhelmed, either.
“Our teams are trained for this type of situation and find tremendous satisfaction in helping Americans this way,” said Smith. “They join HHS to make a difference and helping repatriate citizens is a very tangible way to see public health put into action.”
Passengers file $1M lawsuit against Princess
Two passengers have already filed a lawsuit against Princess.
Ronald and Eva Weissberger, current Grand Princess cruise passengers and Broward County, Florida, residents, are suing for negligence and seeking more than $1 million in damages. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in the Central District of California, Los Angeles, blames Princess Cruises for not taking “all necessary precautions to keep its passengers and crew” safe following the spread of the coronavirus on the company’s Diamond Princess cruise ship last month.
The plaintiffs allege they wouldn’t have gone on the ship if they were aware of the “actual risk exposure.”
“Princess has been sensitive to the difficulties the COVID-19 outbreak has caused to our guests and crew. Our response throughout this process has focused on well-being our guests and crew within the parameters mandated on us by the government agencies involved and the evolving medical understanding of this new illness,” according to a statement provided by Negin Kamali, a spokesperson for Princess Cruises. “We (have) not been served with any lawsuit relating to this matter, and we will not comment on any pending litigation.”
Sick and foreign passengers first to disembark
Around 2,000 increasingly bored and restless passengers were left on the ship Monday night after sick passengers and citizens of other countries disembarked.
Passengers wearing masks trickled out of the Grand Princess and walked to the bottom of a ramp, where masked officials in yellow protective gear and blue plastic gloves took their temperature and led them to a tent for additional screening before they lined up to board a bus to leave the port.
Some of the 21 people who have already tested positive were taken away in ambulances. Gov. Gavin Newsom said that crew members not requiring hospitalization will be quarantined and treated on the hospital, which will dock elsewhere after the passengers have all disembarked.
More than 200 Canadian passengers also disembarked Monday and were flown to a military base in Ontario. The State Department had been working with the governments of more than 50 other countries to arrange repatriation flights.
Next in line are the hundreds of California residents, who will enter quarantine at Travis Air Force Base, located between San Francisco and Sacramento, and Miramar Naval Air Station in San Diego.
‘They were queuing up the passengers like cattle’
The 2,000-plus passengers not scheduled for disembarkation on Monday could only watch the first passengers leave, a process that left some with more questions than answers.
As she watched from her cabin window, Carolyn Wright, 63, of Santa Fe, New Mexico, observed that passengers, who had been ordered to isolate in their rooms and stay at least six feet apart when on deck, were now being herded closely together as they lined up to be processed by people in protective clothing.
“They were queuing up the passengers like cattle,” Wright said. “Everybody was bunched up. They were physically touching each other and they were backed up along the gangplank.” Then, she said, they were taken away in chartered buses.
“I’m just totally freaked out by that,” said Wright. “It’s outrageous. If that’s safe, then why were we stuck in our rooms? It’s been stressed for the past five days that we’re not to have any contact with any other passengers.”
Wright and others said they had been told the details about the quarantine . Only about 50 people had been tested for the virus.
“I’m willing to be quarantined,” Wright said. “’But I want to know if I’m positive or not. We don’t even know if we’re going to get tested. It’s all rumor and speculation.”
Caribbean Princess resumes sailing after workers test negative
On Tuesday, Princess Cruises confirmed that two crew members on board the Caribbean Princess have tested negative for coronavirus.
The cruise line also said three guests were medically evacuated from the ship on Monday for reasons unrelated to coronavirus.
The CDC gave permission for the ship to resume sailing. It should arrive Port Everglades on Wednesday.
The CDC had sent a temporary no-sail order to the Caribbean Princess once the cruise line informed the agency about two crew members transferred from another ship which had a guest who tested positive for coronavirus.
Contributing: Jorge L. Ortiz, Hannah Yasharoff, Jayme Deerwester, USA TODAY; The Associated Press
