U.S. Vice President Mike Pence (front) along with members of the Coronavirus Task Force attend a press conference at the White House in Washington D.C., the United States, March 6, 2020. Mike Pence said Friday that 21 people on the Grand Princess cruise ship have tested positive for COVID-19, including 19 crew members and two passengers. (Photo by Ting Shen/Xinhua)

WASHINGTON, March 6 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Vice President Mike Pence said Friday that 21 people on the Grand Princess cruise ship have tested positive for COVID-19, including 19 crew members and two passengers.

A total of 46 people aboard had been swabbed for a coronavirus test with 24 of them showing "negative" and one "inconclusive," Pence said at a press briefing.

The cruise ship was linked to the first coronavirus death in California amid possible virus spread aboard. It was banned from docking at San Francisco, after one of its former passengers died from the virus Wednesday.

There are more than 3,000 people aboard the ship, according to local media reports.

Pence announced a plan to bring the ship to a non-commercial port and have the infected passengers quarantined at a U.S. military base. But as to about 1,100 crew members, he said "we anticipate that they will be quarantined on the ship, [and] they will not need to disembark."

Pence noted that "everyone on the ship" would be tested and they would be "quarantined as necessary."