New Delhi (NVI): A “cruise to nowhere” off Singapore has returned to port after a passenger tested positive for the coronavirus.
The Royal Caribbean cruise ship Quantum of the Seas set sail from Singapore on Monday for a four-day round trip as part of a ‘safe cruising’ pilot programme announced in October.
According to the reports, the ship has already returned to Singapore and is currently docked at the Marina Bay Cruise Centre.
In an official statement, Royal Caribbean said, “One guest aboard Quantum of the Seas tested positive for coronavirus after checking in with our medical team.”
“All guests and crew who came into close contact with the infected passenger have been identified and isolated — they have all tested negative so far,” the company added.
Meanwhile, the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) said, the 83-year-old passenger tested positive for COVID-19 after reporting to the ship’s medical center with diarrhea and went through a mandatory Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test as per protocol.
“Prior to boarding, the passenger had tested negative for the disease,” the board said.
The vessel, with 1,680 guests and 1,148 crew members on board, arrived in Singapore at around 8 am after turning back on day three of a four-day cruise to nowhere.
Annie Chang, director for cruise at the country’s tourism board also said in a statement, “As part of the protocols for a positive test during a cruise, the passenger was immediately isolated and his initial close contacts were identified and isolated.”
“All on-board leisure activities also ceased immediately and passengers were asked to stay in their respective cabins,” she added.
As the COVID-19 pandemic hammered the travel and tourism sectors this year, including the cruise industry, Singapore’s ‘cruise to nowhere’ program was an attempt to bolster travel demand in the middle of the pandemic.
The ‘cruise to nowhere’— a concept that is being tested in the city-state which allows cruise ships to make round trips to Singapore with no port of call in between.
On the other hand, the daily infections in the city-state have remained mostly under control.
Singapore has not reported any new local transmissions since December 5. So far, there have been 58,285 cases of COVID-19 and 29 deaths in the country, the Johns Hopkins University data shows.
-RJV
