Ship now a focal point of emergency efforts to contain spread of virus as state reports first fatality

A cruise ship linked to the first death from coronavirus in California is being held off the coast of San Francisco, with 21 people on board reporting possible symptoms.

The death of a 71-year-old man on Wednesday was the first US death reported outside of Washington state, bringing the total number of deaths to 11 and prompting the California governor to declare a state of emergency. The state is battling the virus on multiple fronts with 53 confirmed cases.

The man who died was one of three individuals who tested positive for coronavirus after traveling on a roundtrip Grand Princess cruise from San Francisco to Mexico last month.

After the ship docked in San Francisco on 21 February, thousands more passengers boarded and thousands disembarked. The vessel then began a roundtrip voyage to Hawaii.

Coronavirus: US death toll hits 11 as California reports first fatality Read more

On the return leg of the Hawaii trip, 11 passengers and 10 crew members reported flu-like symptoms, Gavin Newsom, California’s governor, said in a news conference. One additional crew member who had served on the Mexico trip was medically disembarked in Hawaii with flu-like symptoms and tested negative for coronavirus, according to San Francisco public health officials.

The ship was scheduled to arrive in San Francisco on Wednesday night, but officials requested that it delay its return while the US coast guard and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention coordinated testing. The plan was for the ship to remain in international waters off the coast of California while a helicopter flew tests on board and then returned the samples to a laboratory for testing.

In addition to the 21 people reporting flu-like symptoms, officials planned to test the 62 passengers from the Mexico trip who remained on board for the Hawaii journey, as well as an unknown number of crew. Those guests were instructed by the cruise line to stay in their staterooms until they were cleared by medical personnel.

By one estimate, more than 50% of the passengers that disembarked from the cruise ship on 21 February were Californians, Newsom said, not including the crew. In total the state and the CDC are working to track down about 2,500 people throughout the state who disembarked from the ship and could be at risk.

This was one of the factors that prompted Newsom to declare a state of emergency in California on Wednesday. “There’s a number of people we’re monitoring,” he said. “We’re going through that manifest and obviously the concern around people being on a tour that all travel together, not just on the ship, but were also transported together, highlights the need to focus with more acuity on those who may have been in closer contact with the individual who tragically passed away.”

It is still unclear whether the passengers will be forced to remain on board like the passengers who were trapped on the coronavirus-infected cruise ship Diamond Princess for more than two weeks off the coast of Japan.