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Cruise Vacation With COVID-19 Safe Management
No matter why
you slice, dice, or spin it, throughout 2020, the leisure cruise industry is
facing an unprecedent global crisis brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. After being hammered by the bad publicity,
the industry is looking forward to restarting leisure cruises in 2021. Singapore which has seen relatively good
result in tackling the coronavirus is taking incremental steps to allow leisure
cruises with COVID-19 safety measures. A
false alarm soon after the pilot program was launched provided good lessons for
cruise lines and passengers alike.
The Coronavirus Threat
COVID-19 can
spread in any setting where people come together to socialize like restaurants,
hotels, and movie theatres. It also spreads in the transportation sectors if people
are in close contact with others who are infected, such as passenger aircraft,
trains, public transport buses and ride share vehicles. However, cruise ships suffer badly from the misperception
perpetuated by the early reports of COVID-19 outbreaks on cruise ships. The
infection rate on a cruise ship is probably high because many people are
accommodated in close quarters and there are many common that touching surfaces
that can be contaminated with the coronavirus. The drama of cruise ships being
refused port entry by many countries also did not help. COVID-19 infections spread
easily on cruise ships not just because of the ship environment. In recent years, passengers aged 50 and above
have come to form the core customer base for leisure cruises. Indeed, many of the cruise tour passengers
are in the over-70s age group. The high
proportions of older people who tend to be more vulnerable to the coronavirus
contributed to the high infection rate.
In the first
known case on 1 February 2020, a passenger who had disembarked from the Diamond
Princess cruise ship days earlier in Hong Kong tested positive for the
COVID-19. The ship with 3,711 passengers and crew members on board, was promptly
quarantined after it entered Japanese waters on 3 February 2020. Over the next few
weeks, over 700 would be tested positive and in the end, 9 people succumbed to
the infection. The fate of the passengers and the response of the Japanese authorities
dominated both the mainstream media and online social media.
Since the
Diamond Princess outbreak, at least 25 other cruise ships have reported confirmed
COVID-19 cases. Soon the media started
to refer to ships as “floating Petri dishes”. There was wide news coverage of
cruise ships being turned away from ports and left to sail aimlessly on the
high seas while thousands of passengers are stranded on board. With all these
bad publicities, it was unsurprising that cruise ship operations quickly grinded
to a halt worldwide.
Late in 2020,
there came the news of potential COVID-19 vaccines with several companies reporting
trial results of up to 95% efficacy. Even with this good news, it is a long way to go
before the pandemic can be contained. So, the cruise industry is no doubt still
at sea. It will be months before the vaccines are approved and widely available. It will be many more months before people
regain enough confidence in taking cruise holidays and some normality return to
cruise industry.
CruiseSafe Pilot Program
In the light of
these development, it is interesting to see how Singapore is gingerly
re-opening its holiday cruise sector. In November 2020, Singapore piloted a
scheme called CruiseSafe with COVID-19 safety protocols. Two cruise ships, one each from the Royal
Caribbean International and Genting Cruise Lines, whose home ports are in
Singapore, can carry Singapore residents as passengers on roundtrips with no
ports of call at a maximum passenger load of 50 per cent of the maximum
capacity. The vessels are installed with
upgraded ventilation and air conditioning system, which will supply filtered
air from outside the ship to replace used air on-board. The ships’ crew members
on these cruises are subjected to stringent measures beyond Singapore’s
prevailing requirements for cross-border travel. Crew members from outside of Singapore must
first undergo 14 days’ isolation in their home country and must produce a
negative test result for COVID-19 before entering Singapore. They will be tested again on arrival in
Singapore and serve a 14-day stay-home notice. They will be tested a third time
at the end of the stay-home notice period.
During the voyage, all crew members will be subjected to routine COVID-19
tests.
Prior to
sailing, the cruise vessels must obtain the Singapore CruiseSafe certification,
which requires an independent assessment by a third-party certification firm. The CruiseSafe standards are developed by the
Singapore Tourism Board in consultation with the industry and is benchmarked
against global health and safety standards. The standards set out stringent
hygiene and safety measure requirements throughout the passenger journey – from
prior to boarding, to after disembarkation.
The standards cover the following preventive measures:
- Infection control measures at
every stage of a passenger’s journey, including a mandatory COVID-19 test prior
to boarding
- Strict and frequent cleaning
and sanitization protocols onboard
- Safe management measures
aligned with prevailing national policy at the time of sailing such as
mask-wearing and the 1metres safe distancing.
- Ensuring 100 per cent fresh air
throughout the ship
- Reducing passenger load to
enable sufficient safe distancing
- Implementing on-board measures
to dissuade close contact and inter-mingling between groups
In addition,
there must be emergency response plans for incidents relating to COVID-19 such
as isolation of infected passenger. A compliance audit will be conducted by an appointed
certification firm prior to sailing.
There will be regular
inspections conducted onboard to ensure compliance. Non-compliance with the CruiseSafe standards will
subject the cruise lines to severe penalties including fines, suspension of
sailings and revocation of CruiseSafe certification.
The cruise ships will have the equipment to conduct COVID-19 tests on board. If a passenger is sick, testing will be conducted. If there is a confirmed COVID-19
case detected, the affected person, as well as
their close contacts, will be isolated immediately. Deep
cleaning of the common areas on board the ship will be carried out,
and all leisure activities on-board will cease. The ship will return to Singapore immediately.
Facing the COVID-19 Infection Test
The scheme faced
a test within weeks of commencement. On 9 Dec 2020, the Royal Caribbean’s
Quantum of the Seas ship returned to port a day ahead of schedule after an 83-year-old
passenger tested positive for COVID-19 during the cruise. Although it was
subsequently found to be a false alarm, the episode is instructive in term of
the precautions taken and responses to COVI-19 infection during a cruise. This is something that the cruise industry
will be studying closely as it seeks to rebound from the pandemic.
Countries such
as New Zealand and Singapore which have been successfully in containing the
spread of COVID-19 applied a similar strategy. This involves a strict lockdown to suppress
any transmission within the community, followed by extensive testing and
contact tracing to prevent any subsequent outbreaks. This strategy can be similarly applied to a cruise
ship. The false alarm on Royal Caribbean
cruise ship, Quantum of the Seas demonstrated how the strategy panned out.
COVID-19 Safe Management Measures During Cruise
The preventive measures of wearing masks and safe
distancing are strictly enforced.
Passengers must always wear masks except during certain activities such
as eating or sports. Royal Caribbean
also adhered to the restrictions enforced by the Singapore authorities
pertaining to social activities and sports. For example, karaoke singing, and
dancing are not permitted and there is a cap on the maximum number of people
for events or within a certain area. Passengers must also use a contact tracing
App, TraceTogether which is checked by the ship crew at random. TraceTogether
is a Bluetooth-based App which records all mobile phones which have the App
enabled and in proximity for an extended time.
This allow for the fast and effective contact tracing when a COVID-19
infection is confirmed. Privacy is
ensured by having no record of location and personal information. Any record is automatically deleted after 25
days. This is complemented using the room pass to record the location of the
passengers as they enter and leave rooms.
Prior to
boarding, all passengers must take and pass a polymerase chain reaction (PCR)
test within the past three days. The passengers would undergo mandatory
COVID-19 antigen testing before leaving the cruise terminal as part of the post-arrival
protocols. Passengers from
different cruise ships will also be kept separated as they embark or disembark.
Some passengers
rued the absence of their favourite activities such as the nightly singing and
dancing. However, there are enough
entertainment and dining options to keep the passengers happy as nobody
complained even when the cruise was cut short by a day.
The ship also has an on-board capability to
process PCR test. Passengers who had to
see the ship doctor were given a swab test.
This is what triggered the false alarm. The passenger who tested
positive for COVID-19 was given a swab test after reporting to the cruise ship's
medical centre for diarrhoea.
Emergency Response to COVID-19 Infection
Once there is a
confirmed case of COVID-19, the ship swung into ‘lock down’ mode. All activities were suspended, and passengers
asked to stay in their cabins while the ship immediately returned to port.
The protocols to
return the cruise ship to Singapore even when a single case was detected
offered an assurance of safe harbour, for it will be a long while before the
spectre of cruise ships stranded on the high seas like the Diamond Princess cruise
ship fade from memory.
For the rest of
the passengers, they were subjected to the COVID-19 antigen test while
disembarking. The whole process of
clearing immigration to taking the antigen test took about 10 to 15 minutes for
each passenger. The results of the
antigen test will be available in an hour.
The Ministry of Health (MOH) also issued an advisory to the passengers, instructing
them to monitor their own health closely for the next 14 days as a
precautionary measure. All passengers also must take another PCR test after 14
days although they can resume normal activities within the community including
going to back to work or school. Only close contacts of the suspected COVID-19
case were sent to a designated government quarantine facility.
To prevent any
intermingling at the cruise terminal with passengers for another cruise ship
that was setting sail, the passengers on board the Royal Caribbean's Quantum of
the Seas cruise were only allowed to disembark about 12 hours after docking
The original
test sample of the suspected COVID-19 case was re-tested at the National Public
Health Laboratory (NPHL) and came back negative for COVID-19 infection. A second and third fresh sample were
subsequently tested by NPHL before the case was declared as a false alarm.
Royal Caribbean International
cancelled the follow-on cruise by the Quantum of the Seas in an overabundance
of caution to review its processes despite the confirmation that it was a false
alarm. Earlier, it had decided to set
sail as planned after ensuring that proper cleaning and sanitization was
completed. The ship’s PCR sample testing
process was under investigation at the point of publication.
Major Public Relation Disaster Averted
In rolling out
the cruise-to-nowhere, Royal Caribbean International provided "COVID-19
protections" to their customers, including 100 per cent credit towards a
future cruise should a passenger or any member of their travel party test
positive for COVID-19 during the three weeks prior to their booked cruise. Full
refunds will be provided if a passenger, or any member of their travel party,
tests positive during the cruise.
Royal Caribbean International
will also cover COVID-19 related costs up to S$25,000 per person in the travel
party for on-board medical expenses, quarantine cost and the subsequent travel home.
Royal Caribbean
International did well to manage the issue.
Few passengers were particularly upset by the shortened cruise as all
passengers were given compensation in the form of credits that can be used for
future cruises. Early in the
mini-crisis, Royal Caribbean International also announced that they will cover
the expenses for the additional PCR testing for all passengers. By keeping the passengers well informed as
the situation unfolds and pre-emptively allaying any fears and concerns, there
was no disgruntlement voiced to the media.
This is one major public relation disaster averted.
Moving Forward
At the present
moment, COVID-19 vaccination using Pfizer-BioNTech's vaccine have started. Britain
was the first country in the world to roll out injections on Dec 8, 2020 with
the United States following suit on Dec 16.
However, it will take months or even years before enough people around
the world are vaccinated to end the pandemic.
Singapore’s CruiseSafe program has given us a look at the new norms for
cruise vacations. The cruise industry must review the lesson learnt and quickly
adapt to recover.
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