City of Monterey: Cruise ship visitors following CDC guidelines
MONTEREY, Calif. (KION) A cruise ship will be arriving in Monterey Tuesday, and the city of Monterey has issued a statement addressing concerns.
The cruise ship, Amadea, will be in the city for the day. It is coming from San Francisco and heading to Santa Barbara. It has traveled to several countries in Central and South America, but the city said it has not been any areas that are at high-risk for coronavirus.
“We take the current health scare very seriously,” said City Manager Hans Uslar. “We are taking proactive and appropriate steps with guidance from the CDC and Coast Guard to assess cruise ship visits during the current COVID-19 outbreak. Amadea passengers and crew currently meet the criteria by the CDC for travel.”
"I'm very concerned because there's not enough real data on this virus because it's new and we can't just treat it like pneumonia or the flu because we don't know what the problems that are going to come out of it," said Esther Malkin, a Monterey resident. "Sure that they probably are meeting the current CDC guidelines, but this is a new virus that the CDC guidelines have clearly been updated on a day to day basis."
Right now, there are no transportation restrictions in the U.S. That includes airports, bus stations, train station and boats. The only travel advisories in place are for travelers to avoid nonessential travel to Italy, South Korea, Iran and China.
The city said it is creating a task force to stay vigilant and keep the staff and public informed about local impacts until the coronavirus is contained.
Nearly 700 passengers and crew aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship were diagnosed with coronavirus, according to CBS News. Six of those people died.
In Santa Cruz, a viewer sent KION a picture of two yellow tents up at Dominican Hospital. It turns out it is not because of the coronavirus, but staff use the tents for a drill every year to prepare for an increase in flu cases.
