PRINCESS SHIPS & CORONA VIRUS

[Tamerton]

13 minutes ago, Te Aroha said:

That was exactly my point, if one passenger was responsible that was bad enough but if others have now tested positive, how many more have possibly been infected. A very sad situation for all concerned. How can they trace all contacts.... not possible. They will have to test everyone.

 

My hygiene comment was more about transmission, as many seem to think that washing hands will protect against this infection. I am not saying that hygiene is not important but a sneeze in a lift or at the theater you cannot protect yourself from that.

 

As Princess continues to cancel future cruises on this ship the longer this looks like it could drag on for the passengers and crew. 

 

 

 

Princess has just cancelled the 7 March cruise.

[chipmaster]

2 hours ago, hawkeyetlse said:

 

Yes, they seem to be very careful to avoid revealing whether any of the confirmed cases are crew members. Because the crew members that are currently working around the ship are _not_ following isolation procedures, which means that with every new case of infection on board, their 14 days should reset… 

 

Hopefully the passengers will be allowed off the ship after 14 days, but that doesn’t mean the ship will be out of quarantine or anywhere near ready to resume any scheduled cruises. 😞

 

Testing of crew with risky symptoms but none postive, while the positives among the high risk symptom passengers continue to grow.  

 

Everyone is quoting 14 days, the reality no one currently knows what the minimum or maximum incubation period is.  The ship's 3K passengers will be the best and dream case experiment.  As most people who do a little reading should know it is nearly impossible to contain an biological organism.   There will be distribution of human hosts strong and weak, the stronger defined as strong immune system or ones that can go many many weeks maybe months w/o symptoms and still be potential spreader if asymptonmatic transmission is real, then we'll most certainly see in a few months a case or many traced back to this ship.  The nice experiment is every passenger is known, and they know they are tagged based on being on the ship so when they go where ever they disperse to that will be traceable, what a marvelous experiment the cruising on a big ship has provided for the study and transmission of this new virus.   The Wuhan has simply an impossible place and government and scale to get an accurate assessment, but this cruise ship is ideal, the scientist are most excited!

Edited February 7, 2020 by chipmaster

[floridian1]

What ports has this cruise visited? There are people there that have come in contact with these passengers too!

[Tamerton]

The horse has bolted. This disease is out of control, I'm glad we're in a hot sunny country and hopefully it will help contain it.

[drdasd]

5 hours ago, strachan01 said:

We are due to be boarding the Sapphire Princess on Thursday 13th from Singapore. As of yet,we have received very little from Princess rather than the global alert from the website. We fly to singapore on Monday. 

 

We're booked for the March 12th Sapphire out of Singapore but are scheduled to fly out there March 4th.  Infections are reportedly increasing in Singapore so I'm not optimistic.  

[kent9xxx1]

The longer they keep all of them on the ship, the more likely all of them will get infected.  Wasn't that the case with SARS a few years ago?  Someone from 1 of the buildings got it, then the whole building got quarantined, then almost everyone in the building got it.  Virus is airborne and can go through the vent from one room to another, right?

[Aus Traveller]

8 minutes ago, kent9xxx1 said:

The longer they keep all of them on the ship, the more likely all of them will get infected.  Wasn't that the case with SARS a few years ago?  Someone from 1 of the buildings got it, then the whole building got quarantined, then almost everyone in the building got it.  Virus is airborne and can go through the vent from one room to another, right?

From what I have read, that is unlikely. The safest thing for the rest of the world is that these people who are known to have been in contact with an infected person, be kept in quarantine until they are clear. At the moment, the time frame is believed to be 14 days from contact.

[Pet72Vet]

37 minutes ago, floridian1 said:

What ports has this cruise visited? There are people there that have come in contact with these passengers too!

Diamond Princess since January 1...
1-Jan-2020 At Sea, Int. Waters 00:00-23:59 2-Jan-2020 Chan May, Vietnam 07:00-17:00 3-Jan-2020 Da Nang, Vietnam 09:00-17:00 4-Jan-2020 Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam 07:00-18:00 5-Jan-2020 At Sea, Int. Waters 00:00-23:59 6-Jan-2020 Singapore (Marina Bay), Singapore 07:00-16:00 7-Jan-2020 At Sea, Int. Waters 00:00-23:59 8-Jan-2020 Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam 07:00-18:00 9-Jan-2020 Da Nang, Vietnam 08:00-16:00 10-Jan-2020 Chan May, Vietnam 09:00-19:00 11-Jan-2020 At Sea, Int. Waters 00:00-23:59 12-Jan-2020 Hong Kong, China 07:00-00:00 13-Jan-2020 Hong Kong, China 00:00-23:00 14-Jan-2020 At Sea, Int. Waters 00:00-23:59 15-Jan-2020 Keelung, Taiwan 07:00-23:00 16-Jan-2020 At Sea, Int. Waters 00:00-23:59 17-Jan-2020 At Sea, Int. Waters 00:00-23:59 18-Jan-2020 Osaka, Japan 07:00-19:00 19-Jan-2020 Toba, Japan 09:00-18:00 20-Jan-2020 Yokohama, Tokyo, Japan 06:00-17:00 21-Jan-2020 At Sea, Int. Waters 00:00-23:59 22-Jan-2020 Kagoshima (Kyushu), Japan 07:00-21:00 23-Jan-2020 At Sea, Int. Waters 00:00-23:59 24-Jan-2020 At Sea, Int. Waters 00:00-23:59 25-Jan-2020 Hong Kong, China 07:00-23:59 26-Jan-2020 At Sea, Int. Waters 00:00-23:59 27-Jan-2020 Chan May, Vietnam 07:00-16:00 28-Jan-2020 Halong Bay, Vietnam 08:00-18:00 29-Jan-2020 At Sea, Int. Waters 00:00-23:59 30-Jan-2020 At Sea, Int. Waters 00:00-23:59 31-Jan-2020 Keelung, Taiwan 07:00-18:00 1-Feb-2020 Okinawa, Japan 13:30-23:00 2-Feb-2020 At Sea, Int. Waters 00:00-23:59 3-Feb-2020 At Sea, Int. Waters 00:00-23:59 4-Feb-2020 Yokohama, Tokyo, Japan 06:00-17:00

[chipmaster]

10 minutes ago, kent9xxx1 said:

The longer they keep all of them on the ship, the more likely all of them will get infected.  Wasn't that the case with SARS a few years ago?  Someone from 1 of the buildings got it, then the whole building got quarantined, then almost everyone in the building got it.  Virus is airborne and can go through the vent from one room to another, right?

 

You can't keep a good bug down, yup confinement and having someone with it isn't a good thing, but better than that spreader released into the wild most certainly returning home thru an airport then airplane and think of the spreading than!  Got to keep them on the ship as long as you can, til their is rioting and then release them, and there still will be most certain a bug hitching a ride. 

[BulldustHHH]

32 minutes ago, drdasd said:

We're booked for the March 12th Sapphire out of Singapore but are scheduled to fly out there March 4th.  Infections are reportedly increasing in Singapore so I'm not optimistic.  

 

Singapore has quite a few cases (relative to other non-China locations) and is very densely populated. It is also a major travel hub (Changi particularly). Tuning down optimism is a good position to take at this stage IMO. Here's hoping that it gets contained, but as they say:

 

[richstowe]

27 minutes ago, drdasd said:

 

We're booked for the March 12th Sapphire out of Singapore but are scheduled to fly out there March 4th.  Infections are reportedly increasing in Singapore so I'm not optimistic.  

We are booked on the previous Sapphire cruise , March first . We have already lost our Cambodian stop . Unfortunately panic continues and who knows which ports we will lose next .  Singapore may in the end cancel all cruises .

We are flying with EZ Air originally through Hong Kong . Now that HK is out, all they'll tell me is they are working at rerouting everyone . My biggest fear is travelling across the world to be told you must return home . Usually at this point we are so excited prior to a cruise . Not this time . 

[kent9xxx1]

21 minutes ago, Aus Traveller said:

From what I have read, that is unlikely. The safest thing for the rest of the world is that these people who are known to have been in contact with an infected person, be kept in quarantine until they are clear. At the moment, the time frame is believed to be 14 days from contact.

 

SARS and coronavirus are the same family.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16696450

 

CDC at the moment doesn't know for sure how it is spreading, and can only rely on previous coronavirus outbreak to guess what will happen, it seems.

[kent9xxx1]

21 minutes ago, chipmaster said:

 

You can't keep a good bug down, yup confinement and having someone with it isn't a good thing, but better than that spreader released into the wild most certainly returning home thru an airport then airplane and think of the spreading than!  Got to keep them on the ship as long as you can, til their is rioting and then release them, and there still will be most certain a bug hitching a ride. 

 

I don't mean letting them run back home, but isn't it better to quarantine them on land instead of confined space where the chance of them getting infected is much higher.  This is nuts, 61 people getting infected.  Just you watch, in a few more days, probably a lot more people will be infected, just by sitting in their cabin.  

[OdessaChic]

If this is an airborne virus, it’s just spreading through the ventilation system. It just went from 10 to 20, to 40 , to 60 people. Very sad situation.

I still have a booking for April, 2 sailing. Hopping for the best.

[Aus Traveller]

55 minutes ago, kent9xxx1 said:

 

I don't mean letting them run back home, but isn't it better to quarantine them on land instead of confined space where the chance of them getting infected is much higher.  This is nuts, 61 people getting infected.  Just you watch, in a few more days, probably a lot more people will be infected, just by sitting in their cabin.  

Japanese authorities announced that these 41 people tested positive from the original tests of the 273 people they considered most at risk. That means that they were infected (without symptoms) before the quarantine was put in place. They did not get infected just by sitting in their cabin. (Sorry to say) but your comment is unnecessarily alarmist and ill-informed 🙂.

Edited February 7, 2020 by Aus Traveller

[freetalkfreelaugh]

The Canadian Heath Minister said the virus is in the droplets should you sneeze and lives on surfaces for a few hours. It is not air borne.

[matadams4u]

3 hours ago, matadams4u said:

News from other threads -

— there are now for ships with issues.  The latest is Crystal Symphony being denied a port in Manila.  Apparently the virus does not differentiate rich from poor.  Also the Genting Dream in Hong Kong and Westerdsm.

- Britain is pretty much requiring self quarantine for 14 days for returnees from pretty much everywhere in Asia. 
- Norwegian cancelling one ship through September and repositioning to the Mediterranean.

 

Now everyone can post the sources.

There are now five ships affected - the Silversea Shadow was denied at Hong Kong and Manila and is disembarking in Ho Chi Minh since it it appears to be one of the few open ports.  Passengers getting full refunds and 25% fcc.

[Aus Traveller]

14 minutes ago, OdessaChic said:

If this is an airborne virus, it’s just spreading through the ventilation system. It just went from 10 to 20, to 40 , to 60 people. Very sad situation.

I still have a booking for April, 2 sailing. Hopping for the best.

Confirmed cases went from 10, to 20 to 61. No-one in authority has said it is air borne or is spreading through the ventilation system. They have said the opposite. All these 61 people were infected before the quarantine lock-down. Maybe it would have been better if the Japanese authorities had been able to expedite the testing of the people on the ship. That is where the delay has been in the numbers being confirmed - not in their infection.

[dog]

From what I have read everyone on the Diamond have not been tested. Today they are all taking their own temperatures in cabins. 

[ilikeanswers]

19 minutes ago, Aus Traveller said:

Confirmed cases went from 10, to 20 to 61. No-one in authority has said it is air borne or is spreading through the ventilation system. They have said the opposite. All these 61 people were infected before the quarantine lock-down. Maybe it would have been better if the Japanese authorities had been able to expedite the testing of the people on the ship. That is where the delay has been in the numbers being confirmed - not in their infection.

 

I don't know if it can be expedited. From what I've read the test takes time to garner a result. They say it is why in China they don't bother testing everyone and just treat everyone with flu like symptoms has having Coronavirus They are trying to come up with a faster test, I read of one scientist in Europe claiming it might be possible for a quicker diagnosis by checking something in the throat but I think it might not have ended up working.

[kent9xxx1]

40 minutes ago, Aus Traveller said:

Confirmed cases went from 10, to 20 to 61. No-one in authority has said it is air borne or is spreading through the ventilation system. They have said the opposite. All these 61 people were infected before the quarantine lock-down. Maybe it would have been better if the Japanese authorities had been able to expedite the testing of the people on the ship. That is where the delay has been in the numbers being confirmed - not in their infection.

 

This is what the CDC said

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/about/transmission.html

Much is unknown about how 2019-nCoV, a new coronavirus, spreads. Current knowledge is largely based on what is known about similar coronaviruses. Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that are common in many different species of animals, including camels, cattle, cats, and bats. Rarely, animal coronaviruses can infect people and then spread between people such as with MERS, SARS, and now with 2019-nCoV.

 

And if you go by previous SARS cases, you can definitely get it quarantined in your room.  What can the authority say anything if they don't know anything?

 

The point is, why are they confined on the ship?

[leck57]

1 hour ago, Aus Traveller said:

They did not get infected just by sitting in their cabin. (Sorry to say) but your comment is unnecessarily alarmist and ill-informed 🙂.

 

Like many comments on here. Some seem to be getting off in just spreading the gloom.

I had read that the virus does not spread through air systems, just person to person.

[Aus Traveller]

1 hour ago, kent9xxx1 said:

 

The point is, why are they confined on the ship?

When the Diamond Princess arrived in Yokohama, a passenger who had disembarked in Hong Kong had been diagnosed with coronavirus. Princess had to advise the Japanese authorities who refused to let anyone disembark. The Japanese Health authorities identified the people on board who they wanted to test for the virus. Those who tested positive have been hospitalized. Obviously the medical centre on the ship could not care for a large number of ill people, some of whom might need an ICU.

 

I ask you, if the passengers and crew were not confined on the ship, what else could Princess do with them? They weren't allowed to disembark them. If the ship sailed from Yokohama, what other port would accept them? They had to be in a port where anyone who becomes ill can be treated in a hospital - a good hospital. While they are in Yokohama with all the support from the Japanese government, they are also able to get food and other supplies. It appears that the Japanese authorities are being very supportive.

Edited February 7, 2020 by Aus Traveller

[BermudaBound2014]

I suspect part of why they are confined can be explained below- the 61 “others” represent those on diamond princess (Japan doesn’t want them included in their data)-

 

 

 

 

[Moeve]

@ those suggesting the US evacuate US citizens prior to the end of the quarantine get a😫 ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MINDS!?!? from me. That is the whole idea of quarantine to stop the spread! Right now these people are comfortable and as safe as they are going to be - even if they can’t see that way right now. Believe it or not a cruise ship stateroom is more comfortable than any army barracks or any makeshift confinement area.

 

As to medical attention all those tested positive are removed from the ship and brought to hospitals ashore.

 

Why would repatriation be so dangerous - here is the reason..... Currently of the 13 cases in Germany 11 were caused by on single person coming from China to take part in work conference. 2 are from a repatriation flight. The reason it seems ( I am saying that with the utmost precaution] we have been able to contain it to a certain extend is that the company shut down immediately and everyone had to go home to quarantine there and if anyone showed signs of illness was moved to hospital all the while still testing those in home quarantine. The repatriation flight people are also in quarantine (army base) with regular testing.

 

We all need to be sensible here because while this corona is not as deadly as the flu it seems to be highly transmittable and all it could take is a small mutation for it to become a real killer that could make the Spanish flu look like a walk in the park,