More than 140 Britons are stranded on a cruise ship off California's coast after a former passenger died from coronavirus and several people on board fell ill.

The Grand Princess, which has more than 3,500 passengers and crew, was due to dock in San Francisco on Wednesday but remains at sea while tests for COVID-19, the disease caused by coronavirus, are carried out.

Eleven passengers and 10 crew members on the voyage between Hawaii and San Francisco had reported symptoms that could turn out to be coronavirus, California Governor Gavin Newsom said.

Coronavirus testing kits are being flown out to the ship and flown back with samples that will be analysed at a laboratory in the San Francisco Bay area, he added.

A total of 142 UK nationals - including 121 passengers and 21 crew - are on board the ship, the cruise's operator said.


It comes after three passengers who travelled on the Grand Princess on a previous voyage tested positive for COVID-19.

One of those passengers - an elderly man with underlying health conditions - died earlier this week in the first coronavirus fatality in California.

Another passenger with COVID-19 remains seriously ill, Mr Newsom said.

A third passenger who had travelled on the ship's journey between San Francisco and Mexico was confirmed to have the virus on Thursday,

Image: California Governor Gavin Newsom said the ship would remain at sea while tests are carried out

Authorities are trying to contact some 2,500 passengers who were on that voyage.

Mr Newsom said the manifest for the Grand Princess' Hawaii cruise included 50 to 60 passengers who were also on board the Mexico voyage.

The death of the former cruise passenger in California marked the first coronavirus fatality in the United States outside of Washington state, where 10 people have died.

The Grand Princess is being held after more than 3,700 passengers and crew spent nearly a month in quarantine on the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan due to coronavirus.

A British man in his 70s who was on board the ship died from the virus - the first UK fatality of the global outbreak.

Meanwhile, passengers on the MSC Opera cruise ship were told not to leave the vessel after docking in Greece due to a case of coronavirus.

The Austrian national had stayed on the ship during a previous voyage before travelling through northern Italy, which is facing Europe's biggest outbreak.

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More than 2,300 passengers and crew were kept on board the MSC Opera for several hours while officials conducted a review of the ship's full medical records.

It was then allowed to leave the port city of Piraeus and sail to Corfu as planned, with no passengers and crew reporting illness, MSC Cruises said.

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