Cruise Ship Passengers to Be Quarantined 4 Military Bases: Pentagon

The Pentagon on Monday designated four bases where passengers from the Grand Princess cruise ship will be quarantined for 14 days once they disembark in Oakland, California.

Travis Air Force Base and Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, California; Lackland Air Force Base, Texas; and Dobbins Air Reserve Base, Georgia, will provide temporary housing for the U.S. citizens among the 3,500 passengers and crew aboard the Grand Princess, said Robert Salesses, a Pentagon deputy assistant for Homeland Defense.

Travis, Miramar and Lackland all have previously provided temporary housing for U.S. citizens returning from China or who were aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship off the coast of Japan.

All of the passengers aboard the ship were expected to come ashore by late afternoon Monday at the port of Oakland.

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The non-U.S. citizens aboard the Grand Princess are to be sent back to their home countries after screening, according to California officials.

It was not immediately clear how many of the passengers would be sent to each of the four bases.

In a statement Saturday, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said he expected about 34 Georgia residents aboard the Grand Princess to be sent to Dobbins, but added that other East Coast residents might also go to the base.

At all four bases, each of the passengers will be provided with a single room with bathroom, Salesses said. If they show symptoms of coronavirus and test positive, they will be taken to local hospitals, he added.

While at the bases, the passengers will be under the supervision of the Department of Health and Human Services; they will have no contact with Defense Department personnel, Salesses said.

In a statement Sunday, Health and Human Services (HHS) said that nearly 1,000 passengers from the Grand Princess who are California residents are expected to go to Travis and Miramar; residents of other states will complete the mandatory quarantine at either Lackland or Dobbins.

"Throughout the quarantine, passengers will be monitored for symptoms" of COVID-19, HHS officials said.

In addition to the U.S. citizens, there are passengers from more than 50 other countries aboard the cruise ship.

"The Department of State is working closely with the home countries of several hundred passengers to arrange for repatriation to their countries," according to the statement.

At least 21 confirmed or suspected cases of coronavirus have been reported aboard the ship -- 19 crew members and two passengers, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

-- Richard Sisk can be reached at Richard.Sisk@Military.com.

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