Last Updated
Breaking News Update: The passenger who tested positive onboard the ship has now tested negative twice in a Singapore hospital.
Original Story Now Continues…
It just wasn’t meant to be.
The very first Royal Caribbean cruise to resume operations since the global shutdown of cruising back in March has been halted due to a confirmed case of COVID-19 onboard.
The Quantum of the Seas had departed from Singapore for a residents only cruise that featured no port stops. On day 3 of the 4 day itinerary, the cruise had to be halted when a passenger reported to medical staff for testing. The passenger was confirmed to be positive for COVID-19.
The ship immediately returned to Singapore while it tested immediate contacts of the positive passenger.
“We identified and isolated all guests and crew who had close contact with this guest, and each of those individuals have subsequently tested negative for the virus,” Royal Caribbean said in a statement.
All passengers will be allowed to disembark the ship once a thorough contact tracing has been completed along with relevant testing of passengers.
The ‘cruise to nowhere’ was cut short on Wednesday after an 83-year-old passenger tested positive.
“One guest aboard Quantum of the Seas tested positive for coronavirus after checking in with our medical team,” Royal Caribbean confirmed.
The ship was reportedly operating at 50% of capacity with 1680 passengers and 1148 crew onboard.
“We were able to quickly identify this single case and take immediate action is a sign that the system is working as it was designed to do,” said Royal Caribbean.
Choosing Singapore was supposed to be a safe bet for Royal Caribbean as the country has done an excellent job of controlling the virus within its own borders. Since the beginning of October, Singapore has been confirming less than 10 confirmed cases per day on average.
Royal Caribbean had also implemented new safety measures including passengers requiring a negative COVID-19 test before boarding along with social distancing and mandatory face masks being enforced on board.
Local media has reported that this one case will not stop Royal Caribbean from operating in Singapore and another cruise scheduled for Thursday will go ahead as planned.
The confirmed case will likely be a blow to the cruise industry as it tries to prove that it can create a safe experience onboard.
The very first cruise ship to sail in the Caribbean, the SeaDream 1 experienced an outbreak onboard the small ship when 7 of the 53 people onboard tested positive. Again all passengers tested negative before boarding the ship.
Earlier this week all major cruise lines announced they would further suspend on U.S. based sailings until at least March.
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Stephen White
Thursday 10th of December 2020
Happy to see that the author updated the story after it was confirmed TWICE that this was a false positive. The man had diarrhea, not COVID. Yet of course, the media ran wild with scary stories about cruising being unsafe. Unbelievable.
Liberty
Wednesday 9th of December 2020
If someone gets sick, we must shut it all down. Because no one has every gotten sick before. Honestly, if the media wasn't constantly piledriving fear into people's minds, no one would have any idea there was a "pandemic."
Victoria
Wednesday 9th of December 2020
Correct me if I'm wrong, but this article suggest that the first result could be a false positive...said passenger had tested negative twice immediately upon landing.
(link)
Stephen White
Wednesday 9th of December 2020
Articles like this one are becoming annoyingly commonplace. Every time a cruise line has even a single case, out come the "doom and gloom" stories about how awful this is, how the cruise industry just isn't ready, they should have waited, done a better job screening people, blah blah blah. COVID-19 is a fact of life for the time being, something we all just need to acknowledge and accept. But the world hasn't stopped turning, and people have to continue to live their lives, and travel is a part of that. While vaccines are being developed, tested, distributed and administered, it doesn't mean everything else shuts down or is held to a ridiculous 0% positivity standard. Cruises will keep going, some people will get sick, and a tiny fraction will die. A TINY fraction. Meanwhile, people can and should keep going on living, working, shopping, raising families, etc. Let's please leave the scare tactic stories in the tabloid press where they belong.