Royal Caribbean cruise passengers disembark from ship where man tested positive for COVID-19

SINGAPORE: Passengers on board the Royal Caribbean's Quantum of the Seas cruise, where a man tested positive for COVID-19, have been allowed to disembark from the ship about 12 hours after docking on Wednesday morning (Dec 9).   

The ship docked at Marina Bay Cruise Centre Singapore at 8am, a day ahead of schedule, after an 83-year-old passenger tested positive for the coronavirus.

CNA observed passengers leaving the ship via an enclosed gangway shortly before 8pm. 

In an earlier update, the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) said that the remaining passengers and crew members would remain on the ship until contact tracing was completed, as part of existing infection control protocols.

READ: Royal Caribbean cruise passenger who tested positive for COVID-19 taken to hospital; other passengers to remain on board

STB also said they would have to remain on the ship until Genting Cruise Line's World Dream cruise completed embarking all passengers for its next sailing. This was to prevent any intermingling between passengers and crew members from both ships.

World Dream arrived at Marina Bay Cruise Centre on Wednesday morning and left at about 6.20pm.

PASSENGERS TO MONITOR HEALTH, TAKE SWAB TEST

Quantum of the Seas set sail on Monday and was sailing as part of a pilot scheme that allows round-trips with no ports of call.

All 1,680 passengers and 1,148 crew members on board the cruise tested negative for COVID-19 before the ship set sail on Monday, said STB.

READ: Royal Caribbean COVID-19 case 'not unexpected', Government prepared for it - Chan Chun Sing

The tourism board said on Wednesday afternoon that passengers on the ship would undergo mandatory COVID-19 testing before leaving the terminal as part of regular post-arrival protocols.

As a precautionary measure, they are also required to monitor their health for 14 days from the date of disembarkation and undergo a swab test at a designated government swabbing facility at the end of the monitoring period.

Close contacts of the positive case who are identified and test negative for COVID-19 will be sent to a designated government quarantine facility.

READ: After COVID-19 case, Quantum of the Seas cruise scheduled for Dec 10 to go ahead: Royal Caribbean

The passenger who tested positive for COVID-19 has been taken to the hospital for further testing. 

His polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test sample would be retested at the National Public Health Laboratory and a second sample would be taken for "confirmatory tests", said the Ministry of Health (MOH) in a separate press release.

"If further tests also come back positive for COVID-19 infection, he will be included as a case in our daily case count," said MOH.

Singapore has reported a total of 58,291 COVID-19 cases as of Wednesday.

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