On Sunday, Trump’s Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, declined to give any type of “preview” into his agency’s plan for the docking of the Grand Princess cruise ship. The ship has 21 passengers on board that have tested positive for the coronavirus.
Carson appeared on ABC’s “This Week” and host George Stephanopoulos asked him how the Trump administration was going to manage the 3,500 people that are currently aboard the Grand Princess. Carson was not willing to share any type of information.
Carson did state that Mike Pence, who is in charge of the coronavirus response team, met with the CEO of the cruise line. And that a plan would be “implemented” within 72 hours of the meeting.
“The ship’s docking tomorrow,” Stephanopoulos pointed out.
“The plan will be in place by that time, but I don’t want to preview the plan right now,” Carson replied.
“I think it all needs to come from a solitary source,” Carson then added. “We shouldn’t have 16 people saying what the plan is, particularly when it hasn’t been fully formulated.”
Carson went on to state “it’s possible for large numbers of people” to be infected with the virus, but promised the Trump administration is “working very hard, looking at all the evidence on a day-by-day basis.”
Early on Saturday the captain of the Grand Princess captain announced that ship would be docking in Oakland, California. He stated that they would be implementing a disembarkation process that could take several days. Once the passengers are off of the ship the Department of Health and Human Services say that all U.S. citizens will be quarantined.
MORE: Sec. Carson says a plan will be in place "within 72 hours" of Vice Pres. Mike Pence's meeting with cruise ship company CEOs yesterday.@GStephanopoulos: "The ship's docking tomorrow."
Sec. Carson: "The plan will be in place by that time." https://t.co/shL3Yddjze https://t.co/B5cIL3ZB30
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) March 8, 2020
On Friday, Donald Trump told reporters that he did not want those aboard the vessel to get off the ship.
“I’d rather have the people stay on the ship to prevent the number of cases in the U.S. from climbing.”
Earlier this month the cruise ship the Diamond Princess was quarantined off of Japan. An estimated 700 of the ship’s passengers had tested positive for the coronavirus.
