The Department of Foreign Affairs on Friday confirmed that around 530 to 540 Filipinos out of 1,111 crew members are onboard the MV Grand Princess cruise ship which is currently being held off the coast of California due to reports that some of its passengers and crew have symptoms of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
DFA Assistant Secretary Eduardo Meñez said the number of Filipino crew members onboard the Grand Princess is almost similar to Diamond Princess which was quarantined in Yokohama, Japan last month after a number of passengers and crew members tested positive for COVID-19.
The DFA has yet to confirm if there are Filipino passengers onboard the Bahamas-flagged cruise ship that is supposedly headed to Hawaii. Grand Princess is now being monitored by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Protection (CDC) while testing of samples from some of its passengers and crew members are being conducted in a laboratory in Richmond, California.
“As of the moment, there are passengers and crew of unidentified nationalities who are exhibiting symptoms and are being tested accordingly,” Meñez said. (Roy C. Mabasa)
