California prepares to dock cruise ship with 21 virus cases

As the US death toll from the new coronavirus reached at least 21, California Gov. Gavin Newsom and the mayor of Oakland sought Sunday to reassure the public that none of the passengers from a ship carrying people with the virus will be released into the public before undergoing a 14-day quarantine.

The Grand Princess carrying more than 3,500 people from 54 countries is expected to dock Monday in Oakland, in the east San Francisco Bay, and was idling off the coast Sunday as officials prepared a port site. Those needing acute medical care will come off first.

This is a time that we must be guided by facts and not fears, and our public deserves to know what's going on," Mayor Libby Schaaf said.

On Sunday, the U.S. State Department issued an advisory against travel on cruise ships. U.S. citizens, particularly travelers with underlying health conditions, should not travel by cruise ship," the department said in a statement on its website.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notes increased risk of infection of COVID-19 in a cruise ship environment."
You don't want to alarm people, but given the spread we see, you know anything is possible and that's the reason why we've got to be prepared to take whatever action is appropriate to contain and mitigate the outbreak, Fauci said on Fox News Sunday."