Medical personnel work near the cruise ship Diamond Princess, on which dozens of passengers have tested positive for the coronavirus, at Daikoku Pier Cruise Terminal in Yokohama, Japan, on February 11. Picture: REUTERS/ISSEI KATO
Keeping the new virus from spreading on land is hard enough. At sea, with thousands of passengers in close quarters on a ship with self-contained systems, it is a whole different challenge. Every interaction with another passenger or crew member becomes a possible source of transmission. And the virus has many places to hide.
Trade group Cruise Lines International Association projected its members had 30-million cruise passengers in 2019. Passenger capacity in Asia almost tripled in the five years to 2018 to 4.26-million, though the industry cut back slightly last year. Thirty-nine companies now sail Asian waters in a total of 79 ships, according to the group.
The industry has learnt from repeated outbreaks of norovirus, putting in place protocols to deal with the highly contagious gastrointestinal illness. Measures including hand sanitation stations placed throughout ships have probably kept the coronavirus from spreading even more, White said. In Hong Kong, 3,600 passengers on Sunday were allowed to leave another liner, the World Dream. The ship had been quarantined since February 5 after Hong Kong authorities found passengers on an earlier trip had tested positive for coronavirus.
The gastrointestinal infection is more contagious, with those infected shedding “billions of norovirus particles while only a few virus particles can make other people sick”, according to the CDC.Still, the coronavirus may require the industry to put in place new procedures for similar outbreaks requiring quarantines of an entire boat, a rarely used measure. Fleets might also look into using new materials, such as plastics that are less conducive to germs.
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