A sick passenger on the coronavirus-stricken Grand Princess cruise ship currently being held off the Northern California coast was evacuated Saturday morning, the captain told passengers.

A passenger on the ship sent KGO a video recording of the captain announcing that the "critically-ill" person was evacuated via boat. The cruise line later stated the illness was not related to the coronavirus.

"At 7:15 this morning, we successfully evacuated the critically-ill guest," the captain said in the video.

On Friday night, the captain stated the passenger may be airlifted from the ship, but details of the operation were still unclear.

"We have a guest who requires medical assistance at the moment, the Coast Guard has been called and the possible airlift of that guest may be possible tonight," the captain said Friday night in a video clip obtained by KCRA. "A few guests will be asked to leave their safe rooms during this operation ... the exact time has not been communicated but we wanted to make you aware in advance in case this occurs."

The Coast Guard and CDC have not commented on the evacuation.

On Friday, Vice President Mike Pence said 21 people on board the ship are known to have coronavirus. There are roughly 3,500 total people on board, but only 46 were tested. Pence said the plan is to now test everyone on the ship and quarantine or treat as needed.

“The ship will not come on shore until we appropriately assess the passengers,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Thursday.

Health officials trying to establish whether the virus is circulating on the Grand Princess undertook the testing after reporting that a passenger on a previous voyage of the same ship, February 11 to 21, died of the disease. In the past few days, health authorities disclosed that at least nine other people who were on the same journey were also found to be infected. And some passengers on that trip stayed aboard for the current voyage.

SFGATE digital editor Amy Graff contributed to this report.

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Eric Ting is an SFGATE digital reporter. Email: eric.ting@sfgate.com | Twitter:@_ericting