Diamond Princess passenger "tested positive for Wuhan coronavirus"

[Cruiser933]

6 minutes ago, hal2008 said:

 

Thats pretty old news now.

It was first suspected based on infection transmission that took place in HK apartement especially gioven that it is exactly how SARS (current corona's sibling) spread.

Keywords are "may be" and "suspected".

Like many things with this new virus - lot of it is intellectual guessing. A lot will turn out to be true and some false.

Apologies, this was the first time I had seen it mentioned in the news.

 

Given that crew have tested positive and were preparing and delivering food without gloves, this seems a possible reason for the recent positive tests and the number of infected.

[hal2008]

WIsh they take crew off the ship and put them in some motel.

Otherwise over next 14 days number of infected is going to increase

[PescadoAmarillo]

20 minutes ago, zonacruiser25 said:

I cruise for the pleasure of a vacation and enjoyment.  Sadly on DP, 2 persons have died and way too many have been hospitalized.  Look how many lives have been changed, some possibly forever.  A weeks pleasure cruise is not supposed to end this way.  Makes Gilligan's Island sound attractive.

Exactly, and that’s what makes all this discussion about who did or didn’t do what and, as a result of that, who’s at fault mute. Except for a small minority of people (many of them on this thread), the world doesn’t care whose fault this was.  They just care that it happened, and will remember “Diamond Princess” and, to a lesser extent, “Westerdam” as long as they remember COVID-19 or coronavirus. 
 

Argue what you want, but, to the general population, this has been very, very bad for cruising and, specifically, Princess. Look at it this way:  if the Diamond was a RC ship and you’re loyal to Princess, how would your feelings about what has happened be different?

[Ombud]

Posted elsewhere but applies here too:

 

I am doing a B2B with 2 kids in a month. Just booked a TA in September on the new Sky, already have a TA on the soon-to-be Enchanted next April, and wished I had a few FCD banked as I've gotten a glimpse of those terrific prices on the soon-to-be-released new itineraries on the Sapphire in Australia.  Hope the prices are the same when I get 3 FCDs next month. 

 

Otherwise I'm just booking a 9 night to Kyushu on the Diamond in December. Will try to find something to round it out to 14 nights

[GottaLuvCruising]

My cousin was a lecturer on the Diamond Princess.  She was on one of the evacuation flights and is now quarantined at Travis AFB.  She has tested negative (so far...thankfully.)  Her luggage went to a base in Texas, but the Red Cross got essentials for her.  She speaks very highly of Princess and the crew throughout this experience.  

I hope everyone gets home well and safely.  

[sprinkles]

22 minutes ago, PescadoAmarillo said:

Exactly, and that’s what makes all this discussion about who did or didn’t do what and, as a result of that, who’s at fault mute. Except for a small minority of people (many of them on this thread), the world doesn’t care whose fault this was.  They just care that it happened, and will remember “Diamond Princess” and, to a lesser extent, “Westerdam” as long as they remember COVID-19 or coronavirus. 
 

Argue what you want, but, to the general population, this has been very, very bad for cruising and, specifically, Princess. Look at it this way:  if the Diamond was a RC ship and you’re loyal to Princess, how would your feelings about what has happened be different?

THANK YOU!  I was composing something similar earlier but was getting too upset.  Unfortunately I’m not sure about the end of your post.  I was reading a heated thread on another forum.  They hadn’t mentioned “our ship” at all.

 

It is after all ostensibly , OUR ship, I say that as most of us have either :

 

Cruised on the DP or with some of her CREW on other ships, CREW who are still on there AND could be reading this!

Have family/friends or just people we have come to care about like the Abel’s and others from social media.

 

Yikes!!, come on, can’t we at least be decent human beings to each other on here.  I haven’t seen this kind of nastiness since all the smoking threads years ago. 
 

[sprinkles]

9 minutes ago, GottaLuvCruising said:

My cousin was a lecturer on the Diamond Princess.  She was on one of the evacuation flights and is now quarantined at Travis AFB.  She has tested negative (so far...thankfully.)  Her luggage went to a base in Texas, but the Red Cross got essentials for her.  She speaks very highly of Princess and the crew throughout this experience.  

I hope everyone gets home well and safely.  

Bless you, you are exactly who I was just talking about.  Best wishes for your cousins health.

 

[gnr25]

They were on the approved list for the evac flight. Then, while riding the buses to the airport, Japan told the US the latest positive test results. The US must have then pulled the 14 infected Americans aside until deciding what to do with them.

[OzKiwiJJ]

@chengkp75 thank you once again for your detailed and very informative explanations. I always find your explanations easy to understand and it is interesting to hear how things work behind the glamour facades of the ships. You should write a book: The Cruisers Guide to How a Cruise Ship Really Works.

[LizNeedsAVacation]

1 hour ago, GottaLuvCruising said:

My cousin was a lecturer on the Diamond Princess.  She was on one of the evacuation flights and is now quarantined at Travis AFB.  She has tested negative (so far...thankfully.)  Her luggage went to a base in Texas, but the Red Cross got essentials for her.  She speaks very highly of Princess and the crew throughout this experience.  

I hope everyone gets home well and safely.  

Was she in a guest cabin or is she officially crew? I’m just curious. And I’m wondering if that is a sign that at least some countries brought how crew members.

[JennAngel9]

58 minutes ago, sprinkles said:

THANK YOU!  I was composing something similar earlier but was getting too upset.  Unfortunately I’m not sure about the end of your post.  I was reading a heated thread on another forum.  They hadn’t mentioned “our ship” at all.

 

It is after all ostensibly , OUR ship, I say that as most of us have either :

 

Cruised on the DP or with some of her CREW on other ships, CREW who are still on there AND could be reading this!

Have family/friends or just people we have come to care about like the Abel’s and others from social media.

 

Yikes!!, come on, can’t we at least be decent human beings to each other on here.  I haven’t seen this kind of nastiness since all the smoking threads years ago. 
 

Aside from the one poster who suggests that anybody worried about consequences of a mismanaged quarantine is "giddy" at the prospect of pandemic, I haven't seen anything that approaches nastiness.

Like many of you, I have fond memories aboard Diamond Princess and just recently got a different Princess ship last month.  When news reports talked about how the passengers all crammed into the theater to see Bravo (likely passing the disease around further) I recalled having seen the same show just days earlier.  I am deeply sympathetic to everyone on the ship, especially the crew, who I think was likely put at the most extreme risk based on Japan/Princess's failure to isolate passengers/crew and get people off the ship to a safer environment.

I know that there are some people on this thread who only hear/believe negative news and some who only hear/believe positive news and frankly, it will be at least another few weeks before we can possibly know which experts/news/posters are correct-- but I think in the meantime, it would be good if we can recognize everyone here posting wants as many lives spared from the coronavirus outbreak as possible and secondarily, as little impact to the cruise/travel industry as possible.  The reason why some of us pessimists are so frustrated with what we're hearing out of Yokohama is we feel that erring on the side of caution (preparing for worst-case scenario within the realm of scientific possibility) is the best way to keep cruisers, crew, and the industry safe.

[JennAngel9]

7 minutes ago, LizNeedsAVacation said:

Was she in a guest cabin or is she officially crew? I’m just curious. And I’m wondering if that is a sign that at least some countries brought how crew members.

Typically the higher profile "guests" (like lecturers and musicians) are given cabins and treated somewhere between crew and passengers-- at least, that is what I've heard from them when I visit with them on ships.

 

I suspect that it may also partly depend on the government of crew/guest lecturers, etc. and if they are already sending flights for others.

[dog]

43 minutes ago, gnr25 said:

They were on the approved list for the evac flight. Then, while riding the buses to the airport, Japan told the US the latest positive test results. The US must have then pulled the 14 infected Americans aside until deciding what to do with them.

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

[arabrab]

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.

Edited February 20, 2020 by arabrab

[LizNeedsAVacation]

4 minutes ago, dog said:

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

As I understood it the US didn’t wait for results because they didn’t have a reliable ETA on them.

[gnr25]

I guess the US was ok with all Americans who wanted to leave as long as they had not tested positive. After all, not everyone had been tested until towards the end of the 14 days.

[sunshine 229]

14 minutes ago, JennAngel9 said:

Aside from the one poster who suggests that anybody worried about consequences of a mismanaged quarantine is "giddy" at the prospect of pandemic, I haven't seen anything that approaches nastiness.

Like many of you, I have fond memories aboard Diamond Princess and just recently got a different Princess ship last month.  When news reports talked about how the passengers all crammed into the theater to see Bravo (likely passing the disease around further) I recalled having seen the same show just days earlier.  I am deeply sympathetic to everyone on the ship, especially the crew, who I think was likely put at the most extreme risk based on Japan/Princess's failure to isolate passengers/crew and get people off the ship to a safer environment.

I know that there are some people on this thread who only hear/believe negative news and some who only hear/believe positive news and frankly, it will be at least another few weeks before we can possibly know which experts/news/posters are correct-- but I think in the meantime, it would be good if we can recognize everyone here posting wants as many lives spared from the coronavirus outbreak as possible and secondarily, as little impact to the cruise/travel industry as possible.  The reason why some of us pessimists are so frustrated with what we're hearing out of Yokohama is we feel that erring on the side of caution (preparing for worst-case scenario within the realm of scientific possibility) is the best way to keep cruisers, crew, and the industry safe.

This is how I feel too. Assuming that the worst scenario ( easiest transmission, longest active lifetime for the virus etc.) is a possibility, and acting accordingly, is actually the way to achieve the most favourable results. Declaring it's not really a problem and everything will be fine,  is the way to encourage sloppy behaviour that will likely turn this into a real disaster.  Hope for the best but expect, and plan, for the worst is my approach to this situation. 

Examining and critiquing the procedures that were put in place is needed to see where things have gone wrong,  not so much to assign blame, but to learn from this so that the knowledge can be used to help in future possible outbreaks. 

 

[dog]

29 minutes ago, LizNeedsAVacation said:

As I understood it the US didn’t wait for results because they didn’t have a reliable ETA on them.

All media I’ve heard led me to believe ONLY those who had been tested and Proven negative would be allowed to disembark and take that US plane. 

[seapals2]

A hard topic to keep pace with ... a couple of days and 30 more pages!  A sign of how deeply we all feel affected and think ‘there but for the grace of god’ etc.  
presumably the ship will sit in dock whilst the crew complete 14 more days once all passengers disembark.  Imagine them drawing straws to see who will get a balcony cabin.   Probably be enough to go round.  However, the one big question .. who is going to care for them. We know they have already put outside catering in place but the meals will need to be delivered.  🤔

[dog]

46 minutes ago, arabrab said:

 

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.

 

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?

[arabrab]

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.

Edited February 20, 2020 by arabrab

[npcl]

36 minutes ago, dog said:

All media I’ve heard led me to believe ONLY those who had been tested and Proven negative would be allowed to disembark and take that US plane

nope. since they were going into quarantine in the us it was anyone that had not had a positive test. several had not been tested before the flight left.

[dog]

8 minutes ago, arabrab said:

 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.

 

Yes, point 1. I meant "should not."

And yes, I agree with your last statement.

What was the whole point of telling them to stay 6 feet apart, then let them sit beside others on a bus and plane who were not proven to test negative? No answer needed.

This has just been something I am having a lot of trouble with.

I have had the highest praise for Princess and the crew throughout this entire tragedy.

Someone slipped up  letting passengers disembark without proof of a negative test.

 

[dog]

35 minutes ago, dog said:

Thank you for your reply.

Re:

1. I understand that. They should NOT be allowed on the flight because they tested positive before disembarking.

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

corrected

[dog]

3 minutes ago, dog said:

 

This has just been something I am having a lot of trouble with.

I have had the highest praise for Princess and the crew throughout this entire tragedy.

Someone slipped up  letting passengers disembark without proof of a negative test.

 

16 minutes ago, npcl said:

nope. since they were going into quarantine in the us it was anyone that had not had a positive test. several had not been tested before the flight left.