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LIVE: Royal Caribbean Guests Are in Limbo After False Covid Diagnosis | December 9
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December 9, 2020
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Now Playing(Dec. 9) A Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. ship on a four-day pleasure trip was forced to return to port in Singapore and confine passengers in their cabins after a possibly false Covid-19 diagnosis, showing the challenges of reviving travel while the pandemic continues.
About 2,000 passengers on the Quantum of the Seas were stuck in their staterooms for more than half a day after being informed of a case by the captain at around 2:45 a.m. local time Wednesday. An elderly male passenger who tested positive was isolated and taken ashore to a hospital while officials traced his contacts on the boat.
But the Singapore Ministry of Health said later a retest of the original sample came back negative for Covid-19, as did a second sample. The ministry said it will run another test in a day. All close contacts with the passenger remain isolated as a precautionary measure.
The incident shows how difficult it will be to get the cruise industry up and running again, particularly with mass vaccination still a while off. Singapore has virtually eliminated local transmission, and so-called cruises to nowhere -- voyages that depart and arrive back in the same destination after sailing offshore -- were a key part of the tourism-reliant economy’s bid to restart the sector.
Cruise companies such as Royal Caribbean and Carnival Corp. have sought to shore up the safety of cruising so they can sail regularly again. Since outbreaks onboard early in 2020, the capital-intensive industry has been essentially on hold, with companies hemorrhaging cash just to maintain vessels until they can take paying customers again.
The episode is also a further setback for Singapore, which is one of Asia’s top financial hubs but is also reliant on travel and tourism. Just last month a highly anticipated agreement between Singapore and Hong Kong that would have replaced quarantine with Covid-19 testing was scrapped due to rising case numbers in Hong Kong.
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