Asilomar may be pressed into service to house more people as COVID-19 spread continues.

Asilomar Hotel & Conference Grounds in Pacific Grove is already the site of a quarantine of 19 or more former passengers of the Grand Princess, but it may be used by the state of California to house other people related to the COVID-19 pandemic as the virus continues to spread, the governor's Office of Emergency Services told the state's city managers in a conference call on March 18.

The OES is looking at a variety of options for housing during the pandemic as part of a larger planning effort, including using motels and hotels to house homeless people during the pandemic, says Monterey City Manager Hans Uslar, who was on the state call. He shared the information on Thursday, March 19 in a press briefing. Uslar does not know of any specific hotels in Monterey or the county that have been approached.

The city of Monterey is seeking information from the state about whether it intends to utilize Monterey County Fairgrounds, in the North Monterey section of the city, Uslar said.

Currently the former cruise ship passengers are occupying three buildings on the grounds between Asilomar and Crocker avenues that can house up to 24 people. California Office of Emergency Services representatives would not confirm to reporters on a press call on Tuesday whether the Grand Princess passengers at Asilomar have exhibited any symptoms of COVID-19.

Like a logic proof from a high school algebra class—if A, then B—the facts are adding up to suggest that at least some of the passengers who were taken to Asilomar did show symptoms.

The federal government has said for weeks that it would not be housing anyone with COVID-19 on federal military facilities. (Remember way back to February when for a split second the government said it might send passengers from the first cruise ship, the Diamond Princess, to Camp Roberts in South County? Officials changed their minds, and one reason given was the feds weren’t going to allow use of military facilities.)

The Grand Princess passengers disembarked on March 10 and were transported to Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield. Since then, up to 19 have been transported from Travis to Asilomar. The state said that passengers with symptoms, underlying conditions or higher risk factors would be housed at alternate sites, like Asilomar.

In a story by the San Francisco Chronicle on March 19, an unnamed federal source not authorized to speak to the media said that about 20 passengers have shown symptoms and are being quarantined away from the other passengers. Some of those had tested positive, the source said.

Asilomar was not specifically mentioned in the article, but the information helps piece together what is happening there in absence of direct answers to reporters’ questions about passengers under quarantine there.

The main focus of the Chronicle article is that passengers at Travis were given the option and even encouraged to not take the COVID-10 test because it would allow them to leave at the end of the mandatory 14-day quarantine. A positive test would delay being able to leave and then they would have to have two negative tests before they could leave with each test taking a few days, further delaying their ability to get home. Up to two-thirds of the 858 passengers had declined the test as of Wednesday.

One passenger said that he and others were clinging to the promise made that if they made it through the 14 days with no symptoms, they were “guaranteed your freedom.”

State officials earlier said that anyone at Asilomar who tests positive for COVID-19 would have to remain until they tested negative twice.

In general state officials have not been sharing specific information about how many at Asilomar have been tested or any results, as well as other details. The Weekly was able to learn from an internal state document that one of the passengers was transported from Asilomar to an unnamed local hospital for testing, and returned to quarantine at Asilomar.