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4 Oahu residents to leave Pacific Princess at Honolulu Harbor Monday; 7 Pride of America crew members have COVID-19

STAR-ADVERTISER / MARCH 7
                                The Pride of America cruise ship, which has seven crewmembers who tested positive for coronavirus, is docked in Honolulu Harbor.

STAR-ADVERTISER / MARCH 7

The Pride of America cruise ship, which has seven crewmembers who tested positive for coronavirus, is docked in Honolulu Harbor.

Four Oahu residents will be getting off of the Pacific Princess cruise ship which is scheduled to arrive at Honolulu Harbor on Monday, state officials said.

The Hawaii Department of Transportation said the ship was last at port in Melbourne, Australia, on March 28, and that no passengers or crew disembarked there. The ship does not have any confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19, and when it arrives in Honolulu, it will have been at sea longer than the 14-day incubation period.

Another cruise ship already docked in Honolulu Harbor, the inter-island Pride of America, now has seven crew members who have tested positive for the new coronavirus, the Hawaii COVID-19 Joint Information Center said today. Center officials said close contacts of the seven have also been placed in quarantine, and anyone on board with COVID-19-like symptoms will be tested immediately.

Pride of America has a crew of 500 and about 300 of them will be leaving the ship to return directly to their home states, officials said. The crew members must be healthy and wear masks as they are taken directly to Honolulu airport to travel home, where they must self-quarantine for 14 days. The remaining crew of about 200 will remain on board to sail the ship to the mainland where it will enter dry dock, center officials said.

The Pacific Princess, meanwhile, is stopping for one day in Honolulu to refuel and restock before heading to its final destination in California. The remaining 111 passengers and all crew members aboard the Pacific Princess will not be allowed to leave the ship while in Hawaii by order of the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency director Major General Kenneth S. Hara, state transportation officials said.

The four Oahu residents — two couples — will be subject to medical and temperature screening by paramedics upon leaving the ship, and will be shuttled directly from the harbor to their homes to begin their mandatory, 14-day quarantine, officials said.

On April 18, another ship — the Seabourn Sojourn — is scheduled to arrive at Honolulu Harbor.

No passengers are on board the ship, and no one will be allowed to leave the ship in Hawaii. The captain must also report any health concerns prior to entering Honolulu Harbor.

The ship was last at port for fuel and provisions in Melbourne, Australia, on March 29. No one left the vessel at that time, and there are no confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19 associated with the Seabourn Sojourn, state officials said. The ship is tentatively scheduled to depart Honolulu for California the same day it arrives.

Under state orders, all passenger cruise ship reservations to Hawaii have been canceled through April 30.

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