The quarantined Grand Princess cruise ship arrived at the Port of Oakland midday Monday in order to offload passengers and crew members who have tested positive for or may have been exposed to the novel coronavirus.

Passenger evacuations are expected to take two to three days after the ship docks, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Sunday at a news conference with local and state officials. The ship’s docking process at the 10-acre port site is expected to be complex due to the ship’s size and various factors like tide conditions.

Health officials have screened at least 46 people aboard the ship for the virus and 21 have tested positive, 19 of them crewmembers. The ship had remained stationed off of the San Francisco coast as federal, state and local health officials seek a solution to evacuate its passengers and take them to local hospitals to be quarantined.

Once passengers are removed from the ship, it is expected to leave the Bay Area to continue the crew’s quarantine. Further details about the process of taking passengers off the ship had not been released by authorities as of Monday afternoon.

Earlier Monday, Princess Cruises, the owner of the Grand Princess, announced that it would offer full refunds to passengers of the ship, including expenses for air and ground travel, hotel reservations, pre-paid shore activities and gratuities. The company will also offer passengers a credit for the fare on a future cruise.

The #GrandPrincessCruise ship enters San Francisco Bay under the Golden Gate Bridge @sfexaminer pic.twitter.com/00gciTWfEA

— Kevin N. Hume (@KevinNHume) March 9, 2020

By Eli Walsh, Bay City News Service

Bay Area NewsCaliforniaCoronavirus