Most Grand Princess passengers in quarantine refused coronavirus tests --often at federal officials'

Despite assurances from Vice President Mike Pence that all Grand Princess cruise ship passengers quarantined at Travis Air Force Base would be tested for COVID-19, The Chronicle has learned that two-thirds of them have declined, often at the encouragement of federal health officials.

As of Wednesday, 568 of the 858 passengers screened while confined turned down the test, a federal official familiar with the Travis quarantine and testing told The Chronicle. The low testing numbers align with what passengers were told by officials during a Tuesday afternoon teleconference, citing a 30% acceptance rate for the novel coronavirus test, several passengers told The Chronicle.

“These folks know they are in a 14-day quarantine, if they test positive they are further delayed until they test negative,” said the official, who The Chronicle agreed not to name because they were not authorized to speak to the media, in accordance with the paper’s ethics policy. “They don’t want to stay. They want to be released.”

Those who spoke to The Chronicle said federal health officials dissuaded them from taking the test, saying if they had no symptoms during the mandatory 14-day quarantine, a test was unnecessary. The federal official and cruise passengers also said the test compliance would have been higher had tests been available to administer shortly after they were removed from the ship and sent to the base.



https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Most-Grand-Princess-passengers-not-tested-for-15141731.php