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Early Wednesday morning, 1,680 Quantum of the Seas passengers, enjoying a four-day cruise to nowhere on the third day, and 1,148 crew members were warned that a suspected case of Covid-19 had been detected. on board. The trip was interrupted prematurely and at the end of it, everyone had to stay in their cabins.
It’s the second blow in months after the long-awaited air travel bubble with Hong Kong burst so unfulfilled, leaving would-be travelers on both sides of the South China Sea frustrated – their hopes of finally meeting family and friends have been gone crazy.
On Wednesday afternoon, some of the people who sailed the ship, which has now returned to the Singapore Bay cruise hub, stepped out onto the balconies to breathe fresh air. For Family Pain 2020. image: Another floating palace in the harbor, isolated while undergoing a complex process of tracing and testing of contacts.
The second test found that the 83-year-old man, whose first test was positive, did not yet have coronavirus. Health officials still plan to conduct an additional test, the Singapore Ministry of Health said.
By Wednesday night, all the passengers had disembarked. All were tested before they were allowed to leave the terminal.
“Even in the early days of the pandemic, cruise ships posed a high risk of outbreaks, which in turn could spread to communities,” said Raina MacIntyre, a professor of global biosecurity at the University of New South Wales in Australia. – Today’s pandemic is much more serious than in May, when cruises were suspended. This means that the risk of picking up an infected passenger or crew member is now much higher. “
Singapore’s failed attempts to revive tourism underscore the difficulty of resuming any travel, even in a country where community infections have been close to zero for weeks. Strict protocols have been established to allow sea travel, including extensive testing of crew and passengers. Cruise ships, including another run by Genting’s World Dream, also had to sail at 50 percent. reduced passenger capacity.
According to a report from the Singapore Tourism Board, on December 7. all 2,828 people on Quantum of the Seas tested negative when the cruise ship left port. Hygiene on board has been improved and fresh air circulation has been improved.
Finally, all these and other measures, including the constant use of masks, social isolation and the buffets in which waiters work in protective suits, may prove insufficient to combat the virus that is still rampant in Europe and the United States. Worldwide, more than 68 million people have been infected and about 1.6 million have died from it.
Singapore’s Trade and Industry Minister Chan Chun Sing said the incident on board “was not unexpected,” according to a ChannelNewsAsia report, and that the government was prepared for the situation. The public can be assured that these types of incidents can be properly managed using pre-prepared protocols, he emphasized.
Klumpa is not just Singapore. With the resurgence of the coronavirus in Japan, politicians and experts are increasingly splitting into opposing camps over the impact of a subsidy program encouraging people to travel. The popular Go To Travel campaign, which offers travel discounts to incentivize regions hardest hit by the shortage of tourists, is one of the government’s most praised economic recovery projects. He was also strongly supported by Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga.
In Bali, the readmission plan for foreign tourists in September was canceled due to new incidents. Thailand, another popular tourist destination in Southeast Asia, is following in baby’s footsteps by admitting just 1,000 foreign tourists in October, compared to 3.1 million admitted in the same period last year.
The growing number of viruses in Hong Kong means that the air travel bubble with Singapore won’t start until 2021. The deal, originally scheduled for November 22, will be reviewed between Christmas and New Years.
Singaporeans do not hesitate to escape in their own skin to somewhere outside the island: they are happy to try both a luxury accommodation in a campground at Chiang Mai airport and a day trip in beach hotels in Sentosa, a enclave near the south coast.
In October, Singapore Airlines Ltd.’s restaurant, located on the airline’s superjumbo plane, sold out in just 30 minutes – some enthusiasts wasted the $ 80 Airbus SE A380 for dinner. The government also launched its domestic tourism campaign, allocating $ 240 million to encourage residents to travel and thus support local businesses.
“Of course, it is a huge disappointment, a disappointment both for those planning to go to Hong Kong and for those traveling on a cruise ship,” said Dale Fisher, infectious diseases physician at the National University Hospital of Singapore and president of the Global Outbreak and Response Network. – But we have to wait for everything to change, because we are trying to resume the trip safely. We shouldn’t think that we live in a fairy tale when one day we wake up and all the problems disappear. “
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