Given what he had been through, he seemed to be in high spirits.

Mr. Lawson and his wife, Mardell Lawson, 81, were two of the more than 2,400 passengers held aboard the Grand Princess cruise ship, which docked at the Port of Oakland on Monday, after becoming a symbolic target of fear of the coronavirus as it circled off the coast.

[Read the full story about the Grand Princess’s arrival in Oakland.]

What began as a 15-day cruise to Hawaii has become an ordeal that will now last roughly a month; passengers like the Lawsons, who were not among the 21 people aboard who tested positive for the virus, won’t be returning home once they disembark sometime in the next couple of days.

While those confirmed to have the virus were to be put in “proper isolation,” according to Vice President Mike Pence, other passengers will be whisked to military bases, where they were set to wait out 14-day quarantines.

According to The Mercury News, more than 1,000 crew members, many of whom are from the Philippines, will stay on the quarantined ship when it leaves Oakland, although it’s unclear where it will go.

Only 45 people aboard have been tested so far, meaning that the number of infections seemed likely to rise in coming days.