Thousands on virus-hit cruise ship wait their turn to leave

Thousands of increasingly bored and restless passengers aboard a cruise ship struck by the coronavirus waited for their turn Tuesday to get off the vessel and go into two weeks of quarantine at military bases around the US.

After days of being forced to idle off the Northern California coast, the Grand Princess docked Monday at Oakland with about 3,500 passengers and crew , including at least 21 who tested positive for the new virus.

"We're trying to stay calm and were trying to stay positive, but it's getting harder and harder. They can't make up their minds how to keep us safe," said passenger Beryl Ward, 77, of Santa Fe, New Mexico.

About two dozen people who needed acute medical care were taken off the ship first, though it was not clear how many of them were infected, said Brian Ferguson, a spokesman for the California Office of Emergency Services.

Also, more than 200 Canadians on board were flown to a military base in their country Monday, Canadian officials said.

About 2,000 passengers, including hundreds of Californians, were still aboard Monday night. The departure of passengers was expected to resume Tuesday.

The Grand Princess ship had been held off the coast since Wednesday because of evidence that it was the breeding ground for more than 20 infections tied to a previous voyage.

Passengers were isolated in their cabins for days. When they were finally allowed a few minutes on deck, Ward said, they were warned to wear masks and try to stay 6 feet (2 meters) away from each other.

Ward's cabin mate, Carolyn Wright, 63, also of Santa Fe, said she looked out her cabin window as passengers lined up to depart and also saw people in yellow protective clothing, gloves and hazardous materials suits.

“They were queuing up the passengers like cattle,” Wright said.

“Everybody was bunched up. They were physically touching each other and they were backed up along the gangplank.”

She added: “I'm just totally freaked out by that. It's outrageous. If that's safe, then why were we stuck in our rooms? It's been stressed for the past five days that we're not to have any contact with any other passengers?"

The ship carried people from 54 countries. Authorities said foreigners would be flown home, while U.S. passengers would be flown or bused to military bases in California, Texas and Georgia for testing and 14-day quarantines.

Some passengers arrived Monday night at Travis Air Force Base in Northern California.

Wright and others said nobody had been told the details.

“I'm willing to be quarantined,” Wright said. “'But I want to know if I'm positive or not. We don't even know if we're going to get tested. It's all rumor and speculation.” “I'm bored and frustrated,” she added. “All of a sudden a two-week vacation has turned into a five-week vacation.”

About 1,100 crew members, 19 of whom tested positive for the virus, will be quarantined and treated aboard the ship, which will dock elsewhere after passengers are unloaded, Gov. Gavin Newsom said.

He and Oakland's mayor sought to reassure people that no passengers would be exposed to the public before completing quarantine.

Another Princess ship, the Diamond Princess, was quarantined for two weeks in Yokohama, Japan, last month because of the virus.

Ultimately, about 700 of the 3,700 people aboard became infected in what experts pronounced a public health failure.

The virus has infected over 700 people in the U.S. and killed at least 27, many of them from a single nursing home in the Seattle area.

The virus has shaken global markets, with stocks Monday taking their worst one-day beating on Wall Street since 2008 and oil prices suffering their most brutal losses since the start of the 1991 Gulf War.

For most people, the virus causes only mild or moderate symptoms such as fever and cough.

For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia.

Most people recover in a matter of weeks, as has happened with three-quarters of those infected in mainland China.

Several universities have begun online-only courses, including the University of Washington, Stanford University, Columbia University and the University of California, Berkeley.