Coronavirus: Grand Princess cruise ship docks in California

Evacuating the vessel will take officals a few days

Grand Princess has docked off the coast of California on Monday after the ship was forced to stay out at sea amid coronavirus outbreak.

The cruise ship, which has at least 21 people on board who tested positive for COVID-19, arrived at Port of Oakland on Monday with 3,500 passengers and crew members ready to get off.

The ship has remained about 10 miles off the coast since Thursday due to the outbreak of the virus. It was originally supposed to dock in San Francisco on Saturday.

Health officials are now working to disembark all passengers from the ship and take them to a military base where they can go through a 14-day quarantine.

In anticipation of the ship's arrival on Monday, authorities fenced off an 11-acre site on the port while working to figure out the best way to transport everyone off the ship.

The first passengers to leave the ship will be the 21 people who tested positive for the virus, federal and state officials said. They will be transported to Northern California hospitals. Nineteen of those people are reported to be crew members.

Passengers from California, which make up about 1,000 people on the ship, will be quarantined at either Travis Air Force Base near Fairfield or Marine Corps Air Station Miramar near San Diego. Other US passengers will go to a military base in either Texas or Georgia to be tested and quarantined for the virus.

Foreign passengers will be sent to their home countries for their own quarantine. In total, 54 different countries are represented on the ship.

Officials confirmed no one who is on the ship will be released to the public until they are tested and quarantined.

No plans have been released by Princess Cruises about what will happen to the company's ship after the passengers disembark, but it is not expected to remain docked at the port.

Clearing the ship will take a few days, as health officials work out where everyone need to go for their quarantine.

"We expect a phased disembarkation process to take place over the next few days," Captain John Harry Smith told passengers, according to the Washington Post. "Priority disembarkation today will be given to guests with more urgent medical needs."

Concerns were raised about a potential outbreak on the ship after three people tested positive from the ship's previous voyage. One of those who tested positive, a man from California, died from the virus.

Princess Cruises said on Monday it would refund passengers the cruise fare they paid for the trip and not charge them for "any onboard incidental charges" during the extra days they were stuck aboard.

The decision to disembark passengers from the ship was an uncertain one after President Trump said on Friday he would prefer everyone remain on the ship. His opinion was overruled.

Confirmed cases in the US rose to more than 600 on Monday, and 26 people have died.