National Guard flies coronavirus testing kits to cruise ship

Coronavirus test kits were delivered at sea on Thursday (March 5) to an ocean liner barred from returning to port in San Francisco after at least 35 people developed flu-like symptoms aboard the vessel, which has been linked to two other confirmed cases of COVID-19.

The diagnostic sampling kits were flown by helicopter to the cruise ship Grand Princess, which California Governor Gavin Newsom has said would be kept offshore until passengers and crew who have fallen ill can be tested for possible coronavirus infection.

The delivery operation was organized by the U.S. Coast Guard, according to Scott Pauley, a spokesman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which is also helping coordinate the effort.

The Grand Princess had been due to return to San Francisco on Wednesday night from a 15-day voyage to and from Hawaii, with 2,383 passengers and 1,100 crew, Mary Ellen Caroll, executive director of the city's Department of Emergency Management, told a news conference on Thursday.

The predicament of the Grand Princess was reminiscent of the Diamond Princess cruise liner that was quarantined off Japan in February and was for a time the largest concentration of coronavirus cases outside China.