Ramada hotel in Kearny Mesa turned into COVID-19 quarantine site for Grand Princess passengers

A Ramada hotel in Kearny Mesa has been tapped as a quarantine site for cruise ship passengers housed at the nearby military base and who have or may have the coronavirus, officials said Wednesday.

Passengers of the Grand Princess who have the virus and show mild symptoms, or none at all, and don’t need hospitalization will be moved to the hotel, California Office of Emergency Management spokesman Greg Renick said. They will be isolated, medically monitored and cared for by a federal disaster medical assistance team.

So far, nine cruise ship passengers have been moved to the Kearny Mesa hotel, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services spokeswoman Gretchen Michael said Wednesday. Those passengers have either tested positive for the virus or are symptomatic and awaiting test results.

The Grand Princess docked last week at the Port of Oakland. Just under 500 passengers were flown to San Diego for a two-week quarantine at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has agreed not to house passengers who tested positive on the base. Three Miramar-based Marines have tested positive for COVID-19, so far. None was involved with the Grand Princess passenger quarantine.

The hotel is the Ramada by Wyndham San Diego North Hotel & Conference Center. Its owners confirmed the plan to take in quarantined passengers.

“We all have a humanitarian responsibility to assist during this health crisis,” hotel owner Maurice Correia said in a news release.

“These coronavirus individuals being housed at our hotel are not sick enough for hospital care and need to go someplace to be monitored through the incubation process,” Correia said.

State and federal authorities will be running the operations at the hotel, which has been secured by law enforcement since Monday. The 151-room hotel sits on five acres along Kearny Mesa Road, just north of Clairemont Mesa Boulevard near state Route 163.

Renick, from the California Office of Emergency Management, said there were a few reasons why state officials selected the San Diego site: it is close to Miramar, each room has individual heating and air-conditioning units, and there are multiple separated buildings on the site, which meets federal quarantine standards.

The Ramada is the only San Diego hotel tapped for quarantine use, Renick said. The state is also using a hotel in San Carlos, which is in the San Francisco Bay Area, and a hotel in Pacific Grove, on the south end of Monterey Bay.