Officials to decide ‘appropriate location’ for California ship's return

Health officials in San Francisco said the Grand Princess cruise ship would remain at sea until people with flu-like symptoms were tested, adding, “once we have results from the (COVID-19) tests, the CDC and the state will determine the most appropriate location for the ship to berth.”

An ocean liner that previously carried two passengers who contracted the coronavirus was barred on Wednesday from returning to its home port of San Francisco from a voyage to Hawaii.

Executive Director of the Department of Emergency Management, Mary Ellen Carroll, briefed reporters, Thursday (March 5), saying: "The CDC and the state are considering a number of locations, including San Francisco." The predicament of the Grand Princess cruise liner was reminiscent of the Diamond Princess vessel that was quarantined off the coast of Japan in February and was for a time the largest concentration of cornoavirus cases outside China.

Some American passengers from that ship were ultimately repatriated to military bases in California for extended quarantines.