Passengers on quarantined cruise ship question protocols after man died of coronavirus
California health officials said 35 people aboard the Grand Princess Cruise ship have exhibited flu-like symptoms after the ship was quarantined 70 miles off the coast of San Francisco on Thursday. The California National Guard rushed to deliver 300 coronavirus testing kits to the ship amid a state of emergency over California's first coronavirus-linked death — an elderly man who had been a passenger on the same ship just weeks ago.
The 71-year-old man who died after he disembarked in San Francisco where two new cases have recently been confirmed.
Several passengers aboard the quarantined ship told CBS News' Jamie Yuccas that they were not necessarily scared, but were concerned with the ship's protocols.
Mary Ellen Carroll, an official at the San Francisco Department of Emergency Management, said the CDC would be selecting which passengers would be tested with their 300 available kits first but that "they are testing folks who were symptomatic first."
Passenger Chris Grady expressed concern over the ship allowing people to roam freely around the common areas even though one of the ship's previous passengers died of coronavirus on Wednesday.
"I feel like they probably should have just had everyone go to their rooms, pretty immediately once they figured that out," he said.
In Washington state, the 12th coronavirus fatality was recently announced, with eight being connected to the Life Care Center nursing home in the Seattle suburb of Kirkland.
Pat Herrick, whose mother was a resident in the nursing home, said she got a call in the morning that her mother had passed overnight. Herrick said she was told her mother died of natural causes. She expressed doubt, insisting her mother had been healthy, but praised the Life Care staff.
"I'm asking and lobbying to make sure she gets tested, I want her body tested. And I've been told we don't do that, you know we just have to assume it's natural causes. So I'm saying that's not okay," Herrick said.
A man whose father-in-law was living at the same nursing home told CBS News' Carter Evans that he was demanding government intervention.
"There is no quarantine," he said. "There is no process. It's getting worse, it's not getting better."