Some Passengers From Princess Cruise To Be Quarantined In San Diego County

Speaker 1: 00:01 U S financial markets plummeted today as concerns about the economic fallout of coronavirus increase. Meanwhile, the 2,400 people kept on board a princess cruise ship off the California coast are expected to set foot on dry land in Oakland. The ship's passengers are expected to begin disembarking within the hour after initial screening. Some of those passengers will be headed to the Marine base at Miramar for testing and quarantine. KPBS reporter Matt Hoffman covered the previous quarantine at the base and joined us to discuss what we can expect. Matt, welcome. Hey Jay. So first tell us a bit about this cruise ship. Speaker 2: 00:37 So we know that it was going to go from San Francisco originally from San Francisco into Hawaii until all those kinds of coronavirus hysteria started happening. Basically they've had 21 people that's a split between passengers and crew that have tested positive for a Kobe 19. Um, also they've had their first death in California, has come off of the grand princess cruise ship. All in total, more than 3000 passengers are on board that ship. And we know from San Diego County health officials, they told us last week that they are monitoring a small number of San Diego's onboard that ship. So maybe those people will be able to come to MCs Miramar and finish their quarantine here. Speaker 1: 01:13 Do we know how many of the cruise ship passengers will be quarantined at Miramar? Speaker 2: 01:18 Oh, w we don't know exactly how many, I mean, we know from the federal government that, uh, about a thousand of those people are California residents. They're either going to be going to Travis air force base and then there will be people continuing onto Miramar. Now we don't know how many people, uh, NCA S Miramar is going to be holding, but we do know there from base officials that they have about 300 rooms available. So if you do the math there up, now you have to think 300 rooms. Doesn't just mean 300 people though, because they could have a family of four in one room. They could have a couple, a married couple in one room. So, um, we don't really know how much to expect, but we know what the gauge 300 you're talking to maybe a maximum of like 500 people or so. So probably something around there. Speaker 1: 01:54 So what do we know about how and when they'll get to Miramar? Speaker 2: 01:57 Right. So we know that the uh, the governor Gavin Newsome said yesterday during a news conference that this whole, uh, disembarking, uh, getting passengers off, getting them tested for the virus is going to take, uh, a two to three day process. And we know from Miramar officials, uh, they, they're kind of expecting maybe as early as tomorrow, Tuesday, they would actually see some of those passengers start to come here. Uh, we do know that it might take a little bit longer because anybody who is screened and is sick, uh, will not be part of this core 14 day quarantine either at Travis air force base or our Miramar or those people will be taken to local hospitals. So people who have passed the initial health screening will be taken here. And then obviously within the 14 days they could develop symptoms and maybe we have to take into local hospitals here in San Diego. Speaker 1: 02:39 And what about additional testing of the people who will be quarantined at Miramar? Does the County have the equipment and the capacity to test them for coronavirus? Speaker 2: 02:47 No, it's, it's really interesting. I don't even know for sure. I mean obviously the, the County has testing capability here. Uh, and that's, that's very recent. And we know that they had at least 400 tests or so and they were supposed to be getting more of those last week. I'm not, if the County would be the ones actually testing these people. Obviously when we had our first evacuation flights coming from Wu Han China, that was before local jurisdictions have their own testing capabilities and those tests were being sent to the CDC headquarters in Atlanta. Now, I'm not sure if since this, this is really a federal government operation happening at Miramar. It's really not the county's a show. They will be helping transport people to and from local hospitals if they need to, but it's really unclear if the County is going to be the one doing this coronavirus testing here or if this is just going to be something that federal government's going to be doing. Speaker 2: 03:29 And if it is, we know that testing takes a little bit longer, up to five days to get results from CDC national. What do we know about the facilities where they'll be housed? Obviously we know, like we said earlier, there'll be 300 rooms that are available. We know that one of those facilities is literally an OnBase hotel. Uh, people who we had a chance to Skype with before have said that, you know, the, uh, of the accommodations before were actually pretty good. I mean, they had food, uh, all, all the time around. The food didn't taste that bad. Um, they had, it's basically a hotel room. They had two beds, they had a shower, they have a bath and people can just stay in their rooms. We do know, it was interesting that the last time that they had these people here on base, there were some concerns from the families that live on base, um, in terms of what their kids going to school with their kids being near these people. Um, so it would be interesting to see again how the base approaches us if they're going to have some more of these, I think they were calling them community forums with the residents on base to see, kind of listened to the, some of their fears and try to calm them and let them know that a, they're at a low risk for catching the virus Speaker 1: 04:21 in the United States. There have been more than 400 positive cases in 19 deaths according to the CDC. Um, can you give us an overview of the cases we've had locally and statewide? Speaker 2: 04:31 Right. So statewide or these are numbers as of yesterday. So Sunday 114 positive tests inside the state of California. And then one death. Obviously that person from the grand princess cruise ship. Um, and we know that from that grand princess cruise ship, there could be a lot more, a lot more positive cases coming. So we'll have to keep an eye out for that. Um, in terms of San Diego County, we haven't had any positive tests come out of San Diego County unless you include the people who came from Wu Han China who were previously quarantined at MCA S Miramar or they were obviously two people from that quarantine who did test positive of they have since recovered and been released from the hospital. Um, and I assume that they are out of San Diego. Uh, we do know that we had that scare though last week. Um, with, uh, coming out of orange County, uh, an 18 T worker who lives in orange County, works in the South Bay, uh, in Chula Vista. Speaker 2: 05:18 Um, there was a meeting, they traveled to Italy, they did test positive for the virus, um, and they came in contact with some other people and now they didn't know that when they came in contact that they had the virus. County health have sends quarantine a home quarantine those five people. Um, and they are waiting to see if they might need to test them. So we had a little bit of a scare here. They had to close down six of those stores throughout the County. But it appears as of right now, there's no residual. Um, you know, there's no, there's been, well first of all there's been zero evidence of community-based transmission here. So once we see that we might start seeing a lot more precautions taken in the County. Speaker 1: 05:48 And lastly, remind us, what are San Diego County residents being advised to do to decrease their risk of getting Corona virus and this community spread? So sort of just similar Speaker 2: 05:58 tips to the, to the flu, you know, wash your hands a lot. Um, if and County residents or sorry, County health officials telling people if you are sick, they want you to stay home. Um, and they want businesses to know, to start preparing for, Hey, there might be a lot of people who are going to be calling out sick. Um, especially if you've been around someone who may have traveled to China, who may have traveled to Italy, some of these high risk places, or they want you to call the County and let, let health officials know. But really, if you're sick, stay home and just, you know, do the normal things to help you from getting sick. Wash your hands. And I remember, I think you have to sing the ABCs twice to get your hands, you know, fully washed the right way two times. All right. I've been speaking with KPBS reporter, Matt Hoffman. Matt, thank you very much. Thanks.