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Japanese authorities have confirmed 60 new corona infections on an Italian cruise ship currently in the port of Nagasaki. The “Atlantic Coast” has been there for repair work since the end of January. There are no passengers on board, but 623 crew members, all of whom have been tested for the crown virus at least once, reports Japanese television station NHK.
With the new infections, a quarter of the crew has now been shown to be infected with the corona virus. Only one had to be treated in the hospital. All others are still on board because they show mild or no symptoms.
“You know exactly who is there and you can examine everyone.”
Thousands of people in a confined space: The current outbreak in Japan once again demonstrates how easy it is for the corona virus on cruise ships. Even when the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the pathogens to be a pandemic, at least 6,000 passengers still took cruises, “Guardian” analyzes show. In Australia, a supplier is being investigated and is said to have minimized a crown outbreak on one of their ships.
Corona’s cases occurred on at least 30 ships on Saturday. The “Diamond Princess” was particularly affected. For weeks, the cruise was the site with the most corona infections outside of China after being quarantined in Japan in early February.
More than 700 of the 3,700 passengers have been shown to be infected with the corona virus. Therefore, the quarantine had been heavily criticized. “The infection rate on board the ship was four times higher than what we can see ashore in the most infected areas of China,” said Joacim Rocklöv, professor of epidemiology at Umeå University in Sweden, who investigated the outbreak on board. . He is sure that if Japan had released the 3,700 passengers and crew members immediately upon arrival, not many people would have been infected with the pathogen.
For science, cruises are a corona test battery. Where many people live together for a long time in a confined space shows particularly well how the virus spreads. Since no one can get out, potential infection chains can also be more easily rebuilt.
“Cruises are an ideal experiment with a closed population,” said John Ioannidis, an epidemiologist at Stanford University. “You know exactly who is there and you can examine everyone.” It is much more difficult on land. It is mainly the people who have symptoms that are tested there.
Outbreaks of the highly contagious norovirus, which triggers gastrointestinal infections, repeatedly show how easily pathogens spread on cruise ships. The coronavirus was also able to spread significantly more easily on the cruise ship, according to data from the “Diamond Princess” program.
When passengers were still allowed to move freely on the ship, all of the people who tested positive probably infected seven other people on average, calculations from the model by Japanese researchers show. According to current knowledge, the reproduction rate of the coronavirus is generally around two to three if you encounter a population that is not immune and has no contact restrictions. This means that a corona patient will transmit the virus to two or three people in these cases.
The virus was likely able to spread as easily on board the ship because the passengers lived close together and were in contact with potentially contaminated surfaces, the researchers believe. However, a corona virus smear infection has not yet been reliably tested. The main route of infection is most likely a droplet infection through direct contact with an infected person.
When the ship’s passengers were only allowed to stay in their own cabins, the infection rate decreased significantly. Without this measure, up to 2,300 people would have been infected in the weeks the ship was stuck, more than 60 percent of travelers.
The coronavirus apparently spread to several cruise ships, even when passengers had to remain in their cabins and comply with applicable hygiene regulations. Therefore, researchers suspect that those affected may have contracted ventilation systems. If the suspicion is confirmed, the virus, once on board, would be difficult to contain. Interior booths in particular depend on artificial ventilation.
This raises the question of whether cruises may not be possible until the pandemic ends. However, this should only be the case in more than a year if there is a vaccine.
Cruise operator Aida has so far canceled all trips until the end of May. How it will continue is unclear. Cruise bookings planned for next year are already booming.
