Couple sues cruise line over handling of coronavirus outbreak: "We would have gotten off that ship"
Passengers of the Grand Princess cruise ship have begun disembarking after 21 of the ship's 2,400 crew and guests tested positive for coronavirus. One couple is filing a lawsuit against the cruise line, arguing it put their health at risk after 12 coronavirus cases and one death occurred as a result of the ship's previous trip.
"My condition is not the best. I have a pacemaker, a defibrillator in my chest," passenger Ron Weissberger told CBS News' Carter Evans.
Weissberger and his wife are suing the cruise line's parent company because they claim it continued to sail "knowing that some passengers and crew had already been exposed to COVID-19…"
"If we would have known, let's say before we landed in the first port, we would have gotten off that ship and flown back home," he said. "I want to let other passengers know what they are getting into once they sign up for a cruise."
California Governor Gavin Newsom said it could take two to three days to get everybody off of the ship due to mandatory screening in Northern California. Passengers are being brought to a secure 11-acre containment area while the most critically ill are loaded into ambulances. Most have taken buses or chartered flights to U.S. military bases with foreign nationals being flown out of the country.
CBS News' David Begnaud spoke to another passenger battling stage four neuroendocrine cancer who is missing her Tuesday chemotherapy appointment in Minnesota due to the mandatory quarantine.
Kari Kolstoe, from North Dakota, was cleared to board the Grand Princess by her doctors to take a break from treatment. She and her husband are being held at Travis Air Force Base where she said she is suffering from horrific back pain due to her cancer.
Kolstoe said she had no coronavirus symptoms, but will still be quarantined along with thousands of others.
Despite the recent coronavirus outbreaks at sea, six more cruise ships set sail on Monday. The $53 billion industry is expected to take a hit after the State Department warned Americans not to take cruises.
