Cruise ship held off California coast over COVID-19 fears

Los Angeles, March 5
A cruise ship is being held off the coast of California after a passenger from the state has died, after more than 10 days of returning home without knowing that he was infected with the novel coronavirus, according to media reports.

Authorities in the state said that the elderly patient had died on Wednesday, making him the first victim outside the state of Washington which has so far reported 10 coronavirus deaths.

The patient, with underlying health conditions living in Placer County, died in isolation at a hospital on Wednesday, reports Xinhua news agency.

The victim had tested positive for the virus on Tuesday was likely to have been infected sometime between February 11-21 during the cruise from San Francisco to Mexico in February.

It's possible that other cruise passengers may have also been exposed, Placer County Public Health said on Wednesday, adding they were are working closely with Sacramento County Public Health and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention to identify and contact other cruise passengers.

Meanwhile, Princess Cruises, the operator of the ship, said it had been notified by the CDC that there was a "small cluster" of cases from that cruise, according to a CNN report.

Sixty-two passengers remain on the ship from the preceding San Francisco-Mexico journey, and they have been quarantined in their rooms, Politico news quoted Princess Cruises as saying.

Princess Cruises is asking passengers from the February cruise to self-quarantine as the CDC conducts an investigation.

On Wednesday, California Governor Gavin Newsom, who has declared an emergency in the state over the situation, said that officials were scurrying to contact 2,500-plus passengers who disembarked on February 21 from the cruise at the same time as the man who died.

California is also keeping Grand Princess passengers on the current San Francisco-Hawaii trip in the Pacific Ocean indefinitely until state and federal officials can assess how many passengers and crew have coronavirus or have been exposed, the Politico report quoted Newsom as saying.

The Diamond Princess cruise ship was at the centre of the early coronavirus spread among Americans in late January and had to dock off Japan to keep passengers quarantined.