Oakland Mayor @LibbySchaaf says no one from the Grand Princess cruise ship will be released into the city or quarantined there. She, @GavinNewsom and other officials are addressing the situation at a press conference in Oakland now.
@LibbySchaaf @GavinNewsom Newsom says he can't say exactly when the ship will dock at the Port of Oakland. It's currently 10-12 miles offshore, or about 2.5 hours away, Newsom says.
Newsom says sites across California were considered, and Oakland was selected in part because of the Oakland Airport. Some foreign passengers, including from Canada, will be flown back to their home country, although they will not interact with the general public at the airport.
Some non-California residents from the ship will also be flown out to Lackland Air Force Base in Texas and another base in Georgia, Newsom said.
A 10-acre area at the Port of Oakland is being cleared and fenced off in anticipation of the ship docking and passengers being evacuated, Newsom says. First off the ship will be people who need to be hospitalized, but officials don't know how many will be in that category.
More than 900 passengers are CA residents, and will mostly be taken to Travis Air Force Base in Solano County for a 14-day quarantine. Some will be taken to Marine Corps Air Station Miramar near San Diego, Newsom says.
Newsom declines to criticize the Trump administration's response to the #coronavirus. He says he's working closely with federal officials and praised VP Mike Pence's work handling the situation.
California has the capacity to test nearly 8,000 people and 15 labs capable of testing, Newsom says. Starting tomorrow, commercial lab Quest will be able to test 2,000 people per day through a facility in San Juan Capistrano.
We'll have more updates once this news conference wraps up, but in the meantime you can learn more about the #coronavirus situation on the Grand Princess cruise ship from @TonyBizjak and @CathieA_SacBee's story published earlier today: bit.ly/3aB9Tgi
After passengers are evacuated from the ship, Port of Oakland will be scrubbed clean, Newsom says. "I can promise you the local workers have nothing to fear," he says.
"If you are elderly, if you have a preexisting condition… I would highly recommend, almost demand, that you not go on a cruise," California Gov. @GavinNewsom says.
Our full story: CA Gov. Gavin Newsom tells elderly people and those with preexisting conditions to avoid cruise ships as coronavirus spreads, warning the state can't handle many more cruise ship outbreaks like this one: bit.ly/3aPjyAb
