UPDATE: The illness which sickened a passenger was determined not to be the coronavirus and the 6,000 passengers and crew were allowed to disembark from the Costa Smeralda. Two cases of the coronavirus, not related to the cruise ship, were diagnosed in Rome, however.
USA Today is reporting that an estimated 6,000 passengers and crew are being held onboard the Costa Smeralda cruise ship while medical teams run diagnostic tests for the Wuhan coronavirus on a 54-year-old of Chinese nationality and a traveling companion who have been quarantined.
The traveling companions reportedly boarded the ship on Jan. 25 in Savona, Italy, and one of them developed fevers and difficulty breathing, according to a person familiar with the situation but not authorized to speak publicly.
Costa Smeralda is currently docked at the port of Civitavecchia, Italy. Because the ship is operating under a sanitary protocol to isolate the sick passengers, none of the passengers or crew onboard are being allowed to disembark while medical teams run tests on the passenger.
Costa Smeralda is Costa Cruises’ newest and largest ship. Delivered in 2019, she is also only the second cruise ship in the world to be fully powered by liquefied natural gas (LNG).
Many cruise lines; including Costa, Holland America, MSC, Princess, Royal Caribbean, and Seaborn; have canceled or altered itineraries to Chinese ports over concerns of spreading the coronavirus. Virtually all cruise lines are implementing advanced virus screening procedures.
Meanwhile other passengers could develop flu like symptoms and a witch hunt mentallity can occur. Sigh
At some point the cruise industry bubble is going to burst as there is unsustainable growth due to corporate greed. I was expecting the tipping point to be due to a stock markets crash and financial downturn or even just cruising going out of fashion but we now have a new possible cause.
I wont be sorry, trying to pick out the navigation lights of cruise ships is nearly impossible because of all their other lights.
Idiot people who don’t get proper education AND vaccinations BEFORE traveling abroad! You can’t drink the water, trust the ice and don’t even attempt to eat from shady street vendors or places with few locals.
I traveled to 18+ countries, S. Africa, Angola Africa, Nicaragua, Mexico, Indonesia, Japan, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, UK, Paris a etc. and never once got sick!
Example: Cured (?) Pork leg sitting out, flys all around and the tourist ate slices. Why?
And drinking glasses may look clean, don’t trust them.
Phil, your advice is sound but it wouldn’t have stopped these poor souls being infected with this NEW illness for which vaccinations are yet to be developed. Were you wearing a full bio-hazard suit on your travels or were you just lucky?
Passengers are now confined to cabins like prisoners, those having inboard cabins being allowed a few minutes on deck each day.