arabrab

Egyptian authorities report 12 COVID infections on a Nile River cruise headed to Luxor. That would be substantially worse than being on GP IMO.  https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/. 

Confirmation that ALL current GP passengers have been ordered to stay in their rooms. Test results expected Friday morning.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2020/03/05/coronavirus-live-updates/#link-JJOY5YDLCVF45OKSUDYNAZCFIQ

25 minutes ago, brisalta said:

Each of those 5000 kits can test 300 samples.

The California State Public Health Lab in Richmond will be using the kits. That is the lab where the samples from the Grand will be going to.

The San Mateo County Public Health lab will be ready to start receiving test kits and testing next week.

Other county public health labs in California will follow.

 

It is not clear that the labs that process the kits have anywhere near the capacity to perform the tests in high volumes. (As I understand it, these are not instant read tests like a quick read pregnancy test.)

If I was on the Grand Princess right now, I'd be getting some bottled water/drinks and snacks for the room. Given what happened on the Diamond Princess, it wouldn't surprise me if folks ended up restricted to cabins for a day or part of it if any of the tests turn out positive. 

following.

11 hours ago, tenpin said:

 

 

Just for our information more people die from flu, accidents, suicide & murder each & every day than this present virus has killed. The 2% is much lower than our annual colds & flu outbreaks.

 

Last year the CDC estimates that 35.5 million US residents caught the flu. It was a moderately severe season. Of those folks, 34,200 died from the flu. That is a death rate of about 1/10th of 1%.  COVID19 is currently estimated to have a death rate between 1 and 2%*, or 10-20 times worse than the flu. (*I'm excluding China since the Wuhan-area cases have had a much worse fatality rate that we thankfully have not seen elsewhere.)

To put it in different terms, if we had 35.5 million people in the US infected with COVID19, a 1% death rate would imply 350,000 deaths. The actual death rate would likely be significantly higher than that because our hospital critical care facilities are not scaled to treat patient volumes of that magnitude. Some years we have a hard time finding enough high level care for those with severe flu.

"It's the second consecutive sailing on that ship in which passengers and crew fell sick.

This time, Caribbean Princess reported at least 228 passengers and 17 crew members suffering from a stomach bug during its 14-day voyage, which was shortened by a day due to the outbreak."

https://www.local10.com/news/local/2020/02/29/cruise-ship-returns-to-port-everglades-early-after-hundreds-of-passengers-fall-ill/

(Actually - an intestinal virus, which could be Noro.)

On 2/24/2020 at 6:27 AM, Roger88 said:

Dont always trust those ratings. Frequently I would go to place with one or two star rating and get like 5 star VIP elite service. I would rather listen to those who has been there

How would "those who have been there" know whether the pools were properly sanitized?  Absent water that is visibly murky, I rely on the ships crew having done their jobs according to health and safety standards. 

I rather liked DD's preschool - when the kids lined up for lunch, a staff member went down the line squirting a bit of hand soap onto each kid's hand, and then routed them into the wash-up area.

22 hours ago, Daniel A said:

Some of these 'hits' really don't affect the PAX.  A number of repetitive hits are for minor discrepancies in report logs that the CDC wants to get.  I'd like to see what the 'true' score would be if one were to remove the points for purely administrative reports violations.

The many pool related deficiencies are a real issue that could have very negative health consequences for users. Whoever was in charge of managing pool sanitation seems to have been doing a very poor job.

41 minutes ago, Ragnar Danneskjold said:

I would imagine those with positive tests were isolated on a different bus.  Unless the Japanese were in charge of the ground transport....

That would have been nice, but it wasn't how they did that. They were on the bus with the rest of the passengers. 😞

4 minutes ago, Ragnar Danneskjold said:

Not sure if you all noticed the portable isolation chamber at the front of the plane.  Those with positive tests were isolated in there.  That chamber would have virus-level filters on the air exhaust.  And likely on the intake too.  You may need to zoom in a bit to see the airtight doors, etc.

 

Sure -- after they held everyone together on a bus for FIVE hours while they argued about what to do.

17 minutes ago, dog said:

Thank you for your reply.

Re:

1. I understand that. They should be allowed on the flight because they tested positive before disembarking.

2. How can they be "considered clear" without a confirmed negative test result?

 I think you meant that they should NOT have been allowed on the flight because they tested positive before disembarking?

On point #2 - people can test negative on one test, and test positive days later.   For these specific fourteen passengers, it is not clear whether they tested negative once but then tested positive, or whether they were tested but released for disembarkation before the Japanese had returned the test results. 

Either way, imo, they should not have been allowed to stay on the bus much less taken on the same plane. And, the politicians should not be overruling the CDC.

7 minutes ago, dog said:

If they did NOT have test results how can they be on the approved list?

1. A list of those who tested positive was available the day before the evacuation. 

2. Those who were NOT positive at that point were considered clear & (if willing) set up for transport.

3. Meanwhile, during the evacuation process (but before the flight was loaded) Japanese officials communicated test results indicating 14 of those present had just tested positive.

4. CDC said don't put them on the same planes with uninfected passengers.

5. CDC overruled by Trump administration official.

6. Infected folks flown back to the US.

"20:33 Princess is covering our flight back home after our quarantine ends. More info on care packages as available, per information given."

-- From the lovely Reddit poster Handfullofkeys who has been blogging about his honeymoon experience on Diamond Princess. Not sure if links to Reddit are allowed.  This is from Part 2 of his AMA. He and his wife are going on the evacuation flight today. 

17 minutes ago, freetalkfreelaugh said:

I am sure Holland will contact all the passengers and ask to self quarantine for 14 days upon arrival.

...meanwhile having potentially exposed how many other passengers/staff in airports & hotels? 

What a disaster.

We loved our cruise on the Maasdam -- smaller size, lovely deck to walk around, wonderful crew. 

I wonder how many of the infected will contaminate others on the flight home?

The article says that the likely quarantine in the US will be a further 14 days.

2 hours ago, dado123456 said:

 

I'm not a cruiser actually, just an interested party.

I have someone in WDM tech. dept. to care for 😌

I hope you get to see your person soon. I hope the next cruises for the Westerdam are not in the least newsworthy. Thank you for posting the pictures!

Princess gets an A+ on that one. Bravo.

I wonder if HAL paid some special (extraordinary) fees to Cambodia or whether there is some other deal (future cruise stops, perhaps? Hiring Cambodian citizens?) in return for allowing the docking and offloading of passengers?  None of those things would be unreasonable, imo. 

23 minutes ago, BarbarianPaul said:

Honestly, are you kidding? So if you were stuck on the Westerdam right now, you wouldn’t support your own government’s efforts to assist in this increasingly dire situation? Yes, good idea, sit back and wait for those other countries to get you off the ship. Good plan. Good luck with that.

 

 

"Increasingly dire"? 

Perhaps we have a different understanding of what that phrase means. These folks are onboard the Westerdam, apparently healthy, and will eventually land at a port that will accept them after enough time. The Thai government said that they would willingly help the ship refeul/re-supply if that was needed.  Not exactly dire given my understanding of the word.

These countries are doing their best to keep a potentially deadly infection from spreading further within their territories. The US plucked folks out of Wuhan and put them in quarantine in various military bases even if they showed no symptoms. Would you rather be in quarantine on a military base or floating around on Westerdam? 

We used a wheelchair line twice when cruising with MIL -- it was a godsend. One time it was distinctly faster, but it was especially important when it wasn't faster -- she didn't have the stamina to walk long distances or stand. It was always a bit of a struggle to get her to agree to using it, but I honestly think she would have crumpled without it.

13 minutes ago, BarbarianPaul said:

Would you feel that way if you were onboard?

I hope so.  It is nice to be internally consistent. 😇

But really, the days when the US can/should be expected.to solve all the problems are over. There are plenty of Australians, Canadians and Japanese citizens on board as passengers. Why not advocacy for those countries (or the aforementioned flag or country of incorporation) to step up and deal with the issue?

31 minutes ago, gatour said:

You do realize that there are American citizens on board the ship.  I am guessing you are an American citizen, if so if you were on-board you would be expecting the US to be of help.  Much like if something happened on a land trip in a foreign country and something happens to you and want help from the local US Embassy.

I am.  The folks onboard the Westerdam are in no danger. They are seriously inconvenienced. Not every inconvenience is the US's responsibility to solve. (In contrast, the Americans who were stuck in Wuhan were in danger. It was appropriate that the US help to evacuate them.). 

There is nothing wrong with letting the flag country (Netherlands) or the country where Carnival chose to be incorporated work to solve this particular issue.