2 Local Residents Stuck Aboard Grand Princess Cruise Return Home

CHESTER COUNTY, PA — After a long and brutal journey beset by coronavirus, two local Pennsylvania residents stuck aboard the Grand Princess cruise ship for weeks arrived home Tuesday.

The ship was held 50 miles off the coast of the Bay Area in California for a week earlier this month, and forbidden to dock, after cases of coronavirus were found on the ship. Tests on 45 passengers and crew members who showed symptoms revealed that 21 had the virus.

The pair are residents of the State Sen. Katie Muth's 44th senatorial district, which covers the Limerick, Royersford, Collegeville, and surrounding areas in both Chester and Montgomery counties. They're among 38 Pennsylvania residents who were stuck on the ship, along with some 2,500 others.

Once the ship was allowed to dock in Oakland on March 9, the Pennsylvania residents were transported to Dobbins Air Reserve Base in Georgia, where they were placed in quarantine.

The Pennsylvania National Guard then flew them up to Harrisburg International Airport, and they were driven home individually by guardsmen.

“One of the most important National Guard missions is to support our own communities,” Maj. Gen. Anthony Carrelli, adjutant general of Pennsylvania, said in a statement. “Assisting and serving our fellow neighbors is a very personal effort as this is where we live. We are all in this together.”

None of the residents are showing any symptoms, but have been told to self-quarantine until their test results are returned.

The Grand Princess departed from San Francisco for Mexico on Feb. 11, and returned on Feb. 21. It departed later in the day on Feb. 21 for Hawaii, where it arrived Feb. 26. It then departed the Hawaiian islands on Feb. 29, before heading back to the Bay Area, only to be stopped and barred from docking 50 miles off the coast.

They're returning to another area which coronavirus has hit, including six cases in Chester County and 34 in Montgomery County as of Tuesday evening.