If the cruise ship Diamond Princess were a country, it would be #8 for most diagnosed cases of COVID-19 (696 cases) and #6 for related deaths (seven deaths, plus one after evacuation) even now, weeks after the passengers were evacuated. And it would be the highest by a huge margin in infections and deaths per capita (18 percent infected).
The story of COVID-19 on the Diamond Princess is genuinely reminiscent of the story of the Titanic. The ship was warned that a disembarked passenger had tested positive, but the warning went unheard, lost in an unattended inbox. Once it was understood, ship and company officials incorrectly guessed that the risk had left the ship with the infected passenger. They stepped up cleaning, but in a haphazard and casual manner. Negligence at every level led to the ship becoming a plague prison, resulting in weeks of quarantine for the 3711 passengers and crew.
With the quarantined passengers, many of them isolated in windowless cabins with just one hour a day of “yard time” all sharing their experience live via social media, the world got a look into the worst-case scenario of cruise ship travel, like a horror movie unfolding in real time. And only a week later, another cruise ship owned by the same company, the Grand Princess, began reporting cases.
As COVID-19 spreads in patches through the U.S. and national efforts have turned from containment to mitigation, the U.S. Department of State is advising citizens that cruise ships are too risky for many.
“U.S. citizens, particularly travelers with underlying health conditions, should not travel by cruise ship… Like many other viruses, COVID-19 appears to spread more easily between people in close quarters aboard ships,” wrote the CDC in their statement, released via the State Department.
The United States has not yet instituted quarantine protocols for passengers returning from cruises abroad, but made a point of recognizing that many other countries have.
Photo: A 2014 picture of the cruise ship Diamond Princess docked at Vladivostok Harbor in Russia. Credit: Vladimir Arndt / Shutterstock.com