Deja Vu: Cruise ship in Japan finds Covid-19 infection

In an unfortunate case of life coming full circle, Covid-19 has infected a passenger aboard a cruise ship off the coast of Japan. One infamous early outbreak of what at the time was a new and mysterious virus we hoped wouldn’t manage to spread worldwide was the case of Carnival Cruise Line’s Diamond Princess cruise ship. 3,700 people were quarantined on that ship and parked in Yokohama amid pandemonium and confusion of how to address the emerging virus. In that case last February, after nearly a month of aimless floating and passengers being quarantined in their tiny cabins, over 700 passengers contracted Covid-19 and 14 people died of the virus.

This time, Nippon Yusen’s NYK Cruises Co has turned its ship back towards port after one passenger was diagnosed with Covid-19. Mirroring the Diamond Princess last year, after discovering a Coronavirus infection, the boat will also dock at Yokohama port.

The Asuka II is a luxury cruise liner with 295 passengers and 425 crew members. With Tokyo just to the north, the boat will return back to Yokohama and is expected to arrive tomorrow at around noon. The cruise was originally scheduled to travel to northern prefectures, calling at the ports of Aomori and Hokkaido before returning to its home port on May 5.

The cruise did have safety measures in place, with all passengers required to test negative for Covid-19 before boarding, but another round of testing yesterday returned the positive infection.

The one Covid-19 infection identified is said to be recovering and in stable condition. They are staying in their cabin now and NYK released a statement that the patient had only been in close contact with one other person before the infection was diagnosed.

SOURCE: Reuters