Mike Pence, the Vice President of the United States of America, announced on Friday that the Grand Princess Cruise Ship of California’s coast has at least 21 people infected with the Coronavirus.
It is said that all the 3,522 people on board the cruise ship will be tested.
Pence said the ship will be moored at a non-commercial port to facilitate testing of the passengers to ensure they do not disperse the coronavirus.
Only 46 people aboard the Grand Princess Cruise Ship were tested for the COVID-19.
Of the infected, 19 are crew members and 2 are passengers.
24 other people aboard tested negative and one was inconclusive.
The ship, which is carrying around 1,100 crew members and 2,600 passengers, left the San Francisco Port on February 21, 2020, for a cruise to Hawaii.
A planned visit to Mexico upon return was canceled after a passenger on the ship died off the virus.
The Grand Princess had been due to return to San Francisco on Saturday.
Pence, the VP of the US, said it is likely that the crew members will remain on board the cruise while the testing phase is done.
Plans are remaining in progress for transferring passengers to military base quarantines.
Debora Birx, the coordinator of Pence, said, “We know many of the people on the cruise ship are in their 60s, 70s, and 80s… as we know that’s a more vulnerable group that we pay special attention to … we’re working very hard with the people on the ship and the medical team there to make sure that their health and welfare are prioritized.”
Pence added, “Cruise ships present a unique challenge for health officials. And so we would ask elderly Americans to use common sense planning any cruise.”
Over 102,242 cases have been confirmed for the Coronavirus all over the world, and 3,497 deaths have been confirmed.