Coast Guard transports passenger from cruise ship for medical condition unrelated to COVID-19

Another passenger has been transported by the U.S. Coast Guard from the Grand Princess cruise ship to a hospital on the mainland for treatment of medical condition not related to COVID-19.

Coast Guard officials said the ship’s captain notified them of the man – in his early 60s – who needed emergency medical treatment on Saturday night. Watchstanders from the Coast Guard consulted with the duty flight surgeon and Center for Disease Control who recommended the passenger’s removal from the ship.

The man and his wife were transported via the Coast Guard cutter Tern to Coast Guard Sector San Francisco on Yerba Buena Island, where emergency crews and CDC officials were waiting Sunday morning.

On Sunday evening, the Coast Guard transported seven California Department Health and Human Services personnel on the cutter Pike to the Grand Princess to assess passenger and crew prior to the ship’s arrival in the Bay Area.

Once passengers are disembarked, the ship will leave the San Francisco Bay and continue crew quarantine, a plan for which is still being determined. The ship remains offshore early Monday morning.

Jan Swartz, president of Princess Cruises, said in a statement Sunday night:

“All of us at Princess Cruises offer our sincere gratitude and appreciation to the federal, state and local authorities who are coordinating, collaborating and activating resources and personnel in support of this response to provide care and attend to the health and well-being of our guests and crew.”

NASA’s Ames Research Center in Mountain View has been closed and employees ordered on telework status after an employee tested positive for the virus, NASA officials said late Sunday.

Officials said in a statement:

“We believe the exposure at the center has been limited, but – out of an abundance of caution, and in consultation with NASA Headquarters and the NASA Chief Heath and Medical Officer in accordance to agency response plans – Ames Research Center will temporarily go to a mandatory telework status until further notice.”

Marin County Public Health officials have announced the creation of a hotline for residents to call with coronavirus questions or concerns. It is scheduled to open Monday at (415) 473-7191 and will operate from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., closed 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. Recorded information will be available on the line at all other times.

The Wells Fargo Foundation announced a donation of up to $6.25 million in donations to support domestic and global response to the infection on Sunday. The San Francisco-based bank said up to $5 million will be donated at the local level in the coming months.

A 10-acre site at the Port of Oakland is being prepared and secured for the anticipated arrival of the quarantined Grand Princess cruise ship and evacuations of passengers anticipated to start Monday will take two to three days, Gov. Gavin Newsom said at a news conference Sunday with city and state officials.

Officials said Friday that 46 aboard the ship were tested for the virus, and 21 were positive – 19 of them crewmembers.

The exact time of the ship’s arrival is still to be determined and working out the logistics involves “enormous complexity,” including optimal timing for tide conditions for accommodating the massive ship.