Six crew members evacuated from cargo ship amid COVID-19 outbreak

Six crew members were evacuated from a cargo ship amid a COVID-19 outbreak in San Francisco Bay, the U.S. Coast Guard said Monday.

There were 21 crew members on the ship, called Global Striker, with 19 testing positive for the virus, The San Francisco Chronicle reported.

It is unknown if any of the crew members were vaccinated or how the outbreak began.

Out of the 21 members, six were taken to the University of California San Francisco Medical Center and California Pacific Medical Center.

The members were evacuated by a San Francisco Fire Department fireboat, according to Pantelis Vasilarakis, the spokesperson for the Coast Guard’s San Francisco division.

The ship was traveling from the Port of Sacramento when the positive cases were discovered, Vasilarakis said.

Fire department officials said no member is in critical condition and the boat has been docked in Pier 26, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

California, along with other states, has seen a rise in cases from the delta variant, with hospitalizations climbing.

Individuals who are fully vaccinated have less of a chance of being hospitalized or dying from the virus. 

California has 57 percent of its population fully vaccinated. Throughout the pandemic, the state has recorded more than 4.3 million cases and more than 65,000 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. 

The Hill has reached out to the Coast Guard for comment.