Margaret Bartlett, 77, is one 142 UK holidaymakers left in limbo on the Grand Princess off the Californian coast, where 21 passengers have tested positive for the virus
A grandmother has complained of going ‘stir crazy’ on board a coronavirus-hit cruise ship in the US where passengers are having to fight over ‘rotten food’.
Margaret Bartlett, 77, is one 142 UK holidaymakers left in limbo on the Grand Princess off the Californian coast, where 21 passengers have tested positive for the virus.
She has been confined to her cabin, which has no balcony, for six days as crew try to prevent the virus from running rampant throughout the ship.
Americans and Canadians were allowed to disembark from the vessel yesterday after it docked in San Francisco. But foreign nationals are being quarantined on board until evacuation flights are organised for them.
The grandmother, from Burnley, told the BBC: ‘The food is rotten and terrible and we have to fight for it. It is not good enough.
‘We are going stir crazy stuck in the cabin. It is a bit depressing when we saw land and it was sunny and we couldn’t get out. We are hoping something will get done. It is terrible.’
Americans and Canadians were allowed to disembark from the vessel yesterday after it docked in San Francisco
Canadian passengers disembark and line up behind tents denoted with the country’s flag on Monday after the 21 infected passengers were removed. Canadian citizens will be repatriated back home
Mrs Bartlett’s daughter Lyndsey Vickers said she was ‘very worried’ about her mother after a passenger who was staying 10 cabins away from the grandmother died from the killer infection.
The 142 Brits are among 3,500 passengers and crew from 50 different countries on the ship, which had been cruising around the Californian coast.
It arrived in Oakland yesterday, where American and Canadian passengers were allowed to disembark.
Some were loaded into the back of ambulances and whisked into quarantine after showing signs of coronavirus.
UK nationals will have to wait until Tuesday evening local time (Wednesday morning in the UK) for a repatriation flight.
The UK Foreign Office said it was ‘working intensively’ with US officials to secure a plane in time.
However, British passengers with symptoms won’t be allowed on the plane and will be taken to a hospital in San Francisco instead.
Medical teams wait for the passengers held on the Grand Princess after 21 people aboard tested positive for coronavirus
The man agreed to sit in the stretcher where he calmly clasped his hands in his lap and both passengers were placed inside the ambulance
It is unclear where the evacuated will land but it is not thought to be RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire or Boscombe Down in Wiltshire, where previous repatriated Britons have been quarantined.
Unloading will take three days officials say, and travelers will be taken to four military bases for quarantine. It’s not clear how many people will be removed on Monday.
Before the ship docked yesterday, Mrs Bartlett said she was ‘dreading’ being stuck on board as some Americans are taken off.
She told the BBC: ‘There is no reassurance that the ship is about to dock as I don’t think she is going to get off. My greatest fear is that they will be kept on that ship for two weeks.’
American passengers are being flown or bused from the port to military bases in California, Texas and Georgia for testing and a 14-day quarantine.
California residents will be sent to the Travis Air Force base in Fairfield or Marine Corps Air Station Miramar near San Diego.
Non-Californians will be flown to Joint Base San Antonio Lackland in Texas or Dobbins Air Force Base in Georgia.
Vice President Mike Pence said in a press conference Monday evening that the 25 children on board the ship were tested over the course of two days and all tested negative for the coronavirus.
Gov. Gavin Newsom said that passengers from out of state and other countries would be taken by shuttle to a separate section of Oakland International Airport and will be kept away from the general public. They will fly out on chartered planes.
The remaining 1,094 Princess cruise employees will be quarantined and treated aboard the ship until evacuation flights come for them, Newsom said.
Personnel covered in head to toe in protective gear had earlier woken those on board to check whether they have symptoms of the virus. The vessel, linked to California’s first death from COVID-19 from an earlier voyage to Mexico, had been held at sea for a number of days.
Fences were being installed at an 11-acre site at the Port of Oakland, as authorities readied flights and buses to whisk the passengers away.
Passenger Karen Schwartz Dever told NBC: ‘Everyone was hollering and clapping as we entered the harbor.’ Footage shows those on board cheering and shouting ‘thank you’ as the ship docked.
‘We’re making every effort to get them off the ship as safely and quickly as possible,’ said Dr. John Redd of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, who had urged passengers to remain in their rooms.
Cruises are perfect breeding grounds for the highly contagious virus which spreads via a simple cough or sneeze and can live on handrails and doorknobs for days.
There were more than 700 infections and six deaths on the Diamond Princess cruise ship which was held off Japan last month.