Guests evacuated Singapore cruise after a passenger detects COVID infection

Thursday, July 15, 2021

After the detection of a COVID-19 case onboard, on Wednesday night, guests started leaving a Genting Cruise Lines “cruise to nowhere” after almost 3,000 passengers and crew members were confined to their staterooms all through the day. A 40-year-old passenger was tested positive onboard. The result was confirmed after the passenger was shifted to hospital once the ship docked on Wednesday, the Singapore Tourism Board said, following the detection of the suspected case.

“The passenger was identified as a close contact of a confirmed case on land, and was immediately isolated as part of onboard health protocols,” the board said in a statement.

Passengers explained that in an announcement at around 1 a.m., they found out about the suspected case and had been asked to stay in their respective rooms from that time on.

From the coronavirus pandemic, the global cruise industry has experienced a major hit with some of the big outbreaks in the earlier times occurring on cruise ships in Asian waters.

In November, Singapore launched “round trips” on luxury liners, with no port of call during a few days of sailing. The country has seen relatively few domestic COVID-19 cases.

On Wednesday, Singapore reported 56 locally-transmitted coronavirus cases, the highest number of daily domestic infections recorded in about 10 months. The case on the ship was part of a growing cluster of COVID-19 infections associated with karaoke lounges, as reported by the local media.

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