Singapore, 9/12/2020 – (Updated on 10/12/2020, 8.42pm): A passenger onboard Royal Caribbean Cruise Ship tested positive for Covid-19 this morning, forcing an abrupt end to the 4 days 3 night cruise.
Through trace together apps, the ship had isolated all guests and crew who had come into close contact with the guest. All of which tested negative for Covid-19.
An announcement by the captain on Covid-19 was captured on video and posted by The Straits Time.
Ms Angie Stephen, managing director for Asia-Pacific at Royal Caribbean International, said: “The ship is finalising the contact tracing process then will get clearance from the Ministry of Health to debark guests. Those who are not close contacts of the confirmed case will be allowed to debark and take a rapid antigen test as per original procedure. – source via The Straits Time
A UFM 100.3 employee was on board the Royal Caribbean Cruise Ship Quantum of the Seas and had managed to give a live account on the event through FB live with UFM 100.3 DJ.
In the UFM 100.3 employee live account of the event, she said that she was sleeping before being wake up from the announcement of the captain on board the cruise ship. Announcing that the Royal Caribbean cruise ship she was on, had been placed under quarantine as per Covid-19 preventive measure put in place by the Singapore Government; due to a passenger testing positive for Covid-19, cutting short the 4 days 3 nights cruise trip.
In her account of the safety measure done onboard the cruise ship, she said that stringent safety measures were put in place onboard the cruise ship. Using the usage of the swimming pool (onboard the cruise ship) as an example, she said that users of the swimming pool once they take off their mask they are not allowed to loiter around the pool, and had to get into the swimming pool immediately.
She also added on that, the restaurants on the ship follow strict social distancing measure, including the check-in and check-out process that we had come to get used to in malls and dining places.
On the closing account, she said that she is not too worried about being place under quarantine as she feels the safety precautions and safety measures had are in place, sometimes above expectation.
A live account of what happen onboard the cruise ship were posted on reddit by u/toocuteforsggirls. On the post, the reddit user detailed the ordeal onboard the ship and stated that passengers were arranged for staggered departure from 7.30pm onwards and had to be swabbed.
Quoting from the reddit post “Please note, all impacted guests will receive a refund in the form of an Onboard Credit for the day missed to their SeaPass Account. This credit is pro-rated based on the cruise fare paid. And, if the full amount of the credit isn’t used by the end of the sailing, any remaining credit will be refunded to the card on file. Additionally, we will provide you with a Future Cruise Credit for the value of one day’s worth of cruise fare paid to be used on a future sailing.”
Following the event of Covid-19 case onboard Royal Caribbean Quantum of the Seas cruise ship, Royal Caribbean had decided to cancel its Quantum of the Seas cruise on the coming Thursday (Dec 10), “in an overabundance of caution”.
Regular sailing will resume on Dec 14, said Royal Caribbean in an email to CNA (Channel News Asia) in the evening.
On a update by CNA, on 10 Dec 2020, 5.03pm, a final confirmatory test was conducted by the National Public Health Laboratory (NPHL) on Thursday. The 83-years old male that was identified as the Covid-19 positive patient was negative.
This was follow up by two polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests conducted on Wednesday, which both come up negative. And thus, quarantine orders of his close contacts had been rescinded.
Updated: 9/12/2020, 9pm, with live account of reddit users and email from RCI to CNA.
Updated: 10/12/2020, 8pm, with final test result of the 88-years old man.
