Princess Cruises has shared relevant data with the CDC to help notify state and county health officials, who will follow up with anyone who may have been exposed to coronavirus, cruise line officials said. "Cruise ships are posing probably one of the biggest challenges that we are seeing in this outbreak," said Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo, infectious diseases director at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
"We know these cruise ships are essentially ... we've been calling them incubators, they are incredibly very healthy environments for the pathogens that we're talking about."
There are more than 3,500 people aboard the Grand Princess -- 2,422 guests and 1,111 crew members, Princess Cruises said. They represent 54 nationalities.