More than 120 Indians on Coronavirus-hit US cruise ship

12:06PM Tue 10 Mar, 2020

More than 130 Indians are on a cruise ship that US authorities allowed to dock in California on Monday after keeping it away at sea for days off because of an outbreak of Coronavirus on board affecting both passengers and crew. “We can confirm that there is one guest passenger and 131 team members from India aboard Grand Princess,” Princess Cruises, owner of the cruise, said in a statement to Hindustan Times. But the company declined to answer questions about their well-being, if any one of them had tested positive for Coronavirus, and, if yes, what was their condition, and where they were. “We are not able to provide any additional information,” it said. The ship is carrying 2,421 passengers and 1,113 crew members; and 21 of them have tested positive for Coronavirus. It was supposed to return to San Francisco after a round-trip to Hawaii on Thursday, but authorities kept it at sea, debating where to dock it given the virus outbreak on board. There are a large number of foreign nationals on board. Canada and the United Kingdom are flying home their nationals among the passengers, according to US authorities and the rest will be quarantined 14 days in camps on US military bases in California and Georgia states. There have been 423 coronavirus cases in the US, thus far, according to the latest update from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), with 19 deaths. Source: Hindustan Times