OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) - Three cruise ships that have not carried passengers or crew members with the coronavirus will dock at the Port of Oakland for several months, officials said Friday.
The Oakland-bound Norwegian Cruise Line vessels will arrive in the San Francisco Bay Area this weekend. Two will tie up Saturday at the Outer Harbor Terminal. The third will dock Sunday at Howard Terminal on the Oakland Estuary. Neither area is being used for shipping, officials said.
The shipping port in March provided an emergency berth to the cruise ship Grand Princess and hundreds of passengers disembarked from that ship, including some who tested positive for the coronavirus.
Officials said the cruise liner reached out to them after the U.S. government banned cruise operations at U.S. ports during the coronavirus pandemic.
“These ships are under federal requirements to report health concerns, and we understand that they haven’t had a history of coronavirus, so we’ll do what we can to help,” said Port of Oakland Executive Director Danny Wan.
The port said the ships would be managed by small crews and there are no plans to allow them to disembark but if they had to get off the ship, the cruise liner would be required to submit a disembarkation plan to state, federal and port authorities.
There are about 100 cruise ships worldwide seeking safe harbor, the port said.
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