Diamond Princess passenger "tested positive for Wuhan coronavirus"

[OzKiwiJJ]

And for those who don't know who chengkp75 is, he's a Chief Engineer who has worked on cruise ships and regularly provides the facts on how cruise ships operate in many different ways. 

[OzKiwiJJ]

3 hours ago, Aussie Jeep said:

Article in todays paper states that 61 people have been infected on the Diamond Princess

https://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-updates/health-safety/41-more-people-test-positive-to-coronavirus-on-docked-cruise-ship/news-story/11a3fa3af337979e642af920febbb2a3

The Australian news isn't keeping up with the fast moving status of this event, that was the count two days ago.

[DownByTheSea]

  

9 hours ago, sppunk said:

Our friends are on Baja Deck and had an hour to walk around the sports deck today, the first time they have been allowed out. 

 

 

Sppunk, could you forward a message to your friends? (I was going to send you a private message about this, but CC seems to have disabled that feature somewhere along the line.) I can't do much to help the people on board, but maybe I can do something very small.

 

I run a book publishing company, and I'd like to offer any of our ebook editions free to the passengers to download, to help them pass the time in quarantine. No strings, just to help them out. Having experienced just a single day of quarantine aboard a cruise a few years ago, I can only imagine how stressful it is to wait out that many days, especially those in inside cabins. And the uncertainty of not knowing about the spread of the virus and if you might get it. My heart goes out to them. I think I'd go bonkers, and would welcome any diversions. As the ship library would be unreachable, that got me to thinking maybe I could help in a very small way. I don't want to advertise so I won't post our name, but we have hundreds of books from best-selling and award-winning authors in their genres, so most folks should be able to find something; and not have to stretch their finances further, which I imagine for some could get difficult, not being able to return to work. (I'd hope employers would be understanding, but it could be a hardship for small businesses and the self-employed...) I feel so sorry for everyone on board.

 

I understand there's a private passengers-only facebook group, so if someone on board could post a brief message with details and the private link to the ebooks, I'd feel glad I could help them out in a very tiny way. You can text me for the details at 720-466-3288.

  

Edited February 9, 2020 by DownByTheSea
typo fix

[OzKiwiJJ]

That's very thoughtful of you DownByTheSea. Kudos! 😊

[flowery]

In one of David Abel's first videos, he commented on the "medical guys" doing a "45 second" visit consisting of a few questions and a temp reading with an ear scan thermometer. According to him, the cover was not changed between his reading and his wife's. I'm glad that everyone onboard the ship has now been issued their own thermometers.

But I'm wondering- who were these "medical guys"- Japanese public health workers or ship employees? In a hospital isolation room- gowns, masks and gloves would be carefully removed and discarded outside each patient's room each time personnel or visitors entered. What kind of safety precautions were taken during the initial 45 second visits? Was a new thermometer cover used each time? What about shoe covers between cabins?

 

Who is preparing the food on the ship? If the crew falls ill with the virus, shouldn't all meals be brought onto the ship from outside?

If sharing a cabin, have the passengers been issued alcohol wipes to disinfect their toilet seats and toilet handles and other surfaces? 

[Aus Traveller]

1 hour ago, Cruise Raider said:

 

Dang!  That's just awful!  I'm sure there is a unique story behind everyone's experience.  And, I can't imagine the crew isn't effected, not only with their health but economically.   I don't know how many  would be tipping at this point and many have families at home that count on that income.   At least another week and a half to go ... I hope they  are all able to hang in there. 

Tipping doesn't matter. The crew have a guaranteed income, even if the stewards and waiters have a major part of that from the international tips pool. That part of their income is not from tips from their particular ship. There will be a slight reduction of money going into the tips pool, but that is spread over the whole Princess fleet. The only loss is the extra tips that people usually give.

[Aus Traveller]

21 minutes ago, DownByTheSea said:

  I run a book publishing company, and I'd like to offer any of our ebook editions free to the passengers to download, to help them pass the time in quarantine. No strings, just to help them out. Having experienced just a single day of quarantine aboard a cruise a few years ago, I can only imagine how stressful it is to wait out that many days, especially those in inside cabins. And the uncertainty of not knowing about the spread of the virus and if you might get it. My heart goes out to them. I think I'd go bonkers, and would welcome any diversions. As the ship library would be unreachable, that got me to thinking maybe I could help in a very small way. I don't want to advertise so I won't post our name, but we have hundreds of books from best-selling and award-winning authors in their genres, so most folks should be able to find something; and not have to stretch their finances further, which I imagine for some could get difficult, not being able to return to work. (I'd hope employers would be understanding, but it could be a hardship for small businesses and the self-employed...) I feel so sorry for everyone on board.

 

That is a lovely offer. I suggest you contact Princess' head office. They may well be happy to accept your offer and make it available to everyone on the ship.

[DownByTheSea]

8 minutes ago, Aus Traveller said:

That is a lovely offer. I suggest you contact Princess' head office. They may well be happy to accept your offer and make it available to everyone on the ship.

 

Good idea, I'll see if I can find someone. Do you (or anyone) know who'd be best to reach out to? That might speed things up; I'm sure they're all in crisis mode right now.

 

Who runs the library and internet cafe on board, I imagine that's under the CD somewhere? And if so, any ideas who at corporate would be the contact who manages the CDs?  (I remember in days gone by some of the CDs even had public email addresses, but I doubt that's true any more.)

 

Princess is doing an amazing job, I must say.

[chipmaster]

2 hours ago, Aus Traveller said:

Keeping these passengers on the ship has not resulted in "lots of transmission". There is no "spiraling count on the ship" and it is not a "recipe for EVERYONE getting it". You must not have read that the passengers are isolated in their cabins. 😁

 

The passengers are isolated from each other (except for their cabin mate/s) to prevent transmission of the virus within the group. There is absolutely no indication that the addition three people who tested positive have contracted the virus since the quarantine was imposed. The original carrier was on the ship for five or seven days before disembarking in Hong Kong. He had no symptoms at that time, but unfortunately he had infected at least 64 people on the ship, and there may be more discovered.

 

It is believed that there is an incubation period of 14 days. Once they are past that point, these people quarantined on the ship, should be in the clear.

 

Really you know for certain 14 days, got ya!  All is good!

[Aus Traveller]

2 minutes ago, chipmaster said:

 

Really you know for certain 14 days, got ya!  All is good!

That is why I said "believed that there is an incubation period of 14 days". As more research is done on this new virus the incubation period might turn out to be a bit less than 14 days, or maybe more. All the authorities can work on at the moment, is the latest information available.

[sppunk]

3 hours ago, DownByTheSea said:

  

 

 

Sppunk, could you forward a message to your friends? (I was going to send you a private message about this, but CC seems to have disabled that feature somewhere along the line.) I can't do much to help the people on board, but maybe I can do something very small.

 

I run a book publishing company, and I'd like to offer any of our ebook editions free to the passengers to download, to help them pass the time in quarantine. No strings, just to help them out. Having experienced just a single day of quarantine aboard a cruise a few years ago, I can only imagine how stressful it is to wait out that many days, especially those in inside cabins. And the uncertainty of not knowing about the spread of the virus and if you might get it. My heart goes out to them. I think I'd go bonkers, and would welcome any diversions. As the ship library would be unreachable, that got me to thinking maybe I could help in a very small way. I don't want to advertise so I won't post our name, but we have hundreds of books from best-selling and award-winning authors in their genres, so most folks should be able to find something; and not have to stretch their finances further, which I imagine for some could get difficult, not being able to return to work. (I'd hope employers would be understanding, but it could be a hardship for small businesses and the self-employed...) I feel so sorry for everyone on board.

 

I understand there's a private passengers-only facebook group, so if someone on board could post a brief message with details and the private link to the ebooks, I'd feel glad I could help them out in a very tiny way. You can text me for the details at 720-466-3288.

  

How kind! I just sent this to our friend. 

[mayleeman]

5 hours ago, Aus Traveller said:

unfortunately he had infected at least 64 people on the ship

 

How do you know he was the only source?

[Aus Traveller]

1 minute ago, mayleeman said:

 

How do you know he was the only source?

The man who is believed to have been the source is from Hong Kong. He disembarked on 20th February and fairly soon after that reported to hospital that he was ill. After he was diagnosed as having coronavirus, investigations were made into his previous contacts. Yes - there could have been someone with him who was also infected, but who has chosen not to go to hospital - maybe not sick enough.

 

Your question is academic. It doesn't matter how people became infected, whether it was from the known carrier or from someone else. Once the isolation quarantine was put in place, passengers or crew who were infected could no longer pass the virus to anyone other than their own cabin mates.

 

Although some people have criticised Princess for imprisoning people in their cabins, it is the only way to keep the virus isolated to those who already have it. If they hadn't taken this action, soon most of the 3,700 people who live in these confined spaces, would have the virus. Then there would be a much larger emergency.

[Outerdog]

2 minutes ago, Aus Traveller said:

Although some people have criticised Princess for imprisoning people in their cabins,

 

Has anyone really criticized Princess in this? I mean, I referred to the inside cabins as being prisons. But I wasn't being critical of Princess with that description. Frankly, there isn't a reasonable alternative to the situation on Diamond right now.

 

I must have missed the critical posts. I am certain those posters included viable alternatives, however. I'm certain of it!

[Aus Traveller]

2 minutes ago, Outerdog said:

 

Has anyone really criticized Princess in this? I mean, I referred to the inside cabins as being prisons. But I wasn't being critical of Princess with that description. Frankly, there isn't a reasonable alternative to the situation on Diamond right now.

 

I must have missed the critical posts. I am certain those posters included viable alternatives, however. I'm certain of it!

Yes. There have been several (in my opinion ill-informed) posts criticizing Princess and blaming them for the situation. There have also been several comments that those on the ship will soon all have the virus. These people should read the post from Chengkp75, a ship's engineer who  explained how the ventilation system works.

[mayleeman]

31 minutes ago, Aus Traveller said:

Your question is academic

 

Although there may be lots of pax who also tested positive who might have been spreading it before they were taken off....NO, the actual question is not academic. I was inquiring to find out the source of your apparently unfounded statement. With an incubation period of up to 14 days, there is no way to tell who infected whom of the positive cases. An asymptomatic crew member might still be a source, and if so, that person could need to be traced, too, and the same for a possible 2nd contagious-but-not-sick passenger. Had an authoritative source made a statement that all cases traced back to that one guy, that could well be an extremely important thing to know. But "he is the only one we know" is vastly different from "he is the only one" this early in the quarantine. 

 

There are enough rumors and mistated "facts" out there already. No need to create more. 

Edited February 9, 2020 by mayleeman

[Aus Traveller]

1 minute ago, mayleeman said:

 

Although there may be lots of pax who also tested positive who might have been spreading it before they were taken off....NO, the actual question is not academic. I was inquiring to find out the source of your apparently unfounded statement. With an incubation period of up to 14 days, there is no way to tell who infected whom of the positive cases. An asymptomatic crew member might still be a source, and if so, that person could need to be traced, too, and the same for a possible 2nd contagious-but-not-sick passenger. Had an authoritative source made a statement that all cases traced back to that one guy, that could well be an extremely important thing to know. But "he is the only one we know" is vastly different from "he is the only one" this early in the quarantine. 

 

There are enough rumors and mistated "facts" out there already. No need to create more. 

I have not repeated rumours or mistated "facts". My comments about the 'man from Hong Kong' came from official statements a few days ago. If you wish, you can read through all the posts pertaining to this issue.

[NorthwestCruiser]

According to BNO newsroom, "several more" people onboard have fallen sick and been evacuated -- but it is not known at this time if it is related to the virus.   There are many people onboard in less than ideal conditions now so not everything will be the virus, but everything will be treated as if it were.     Sending good thoughts to all affected.   

 

I'm beginning to think that they need to be evacuated to shore.  This must be incredibly stressful, which can weaken the immune system.   I really do not quite understand the thinking, this stuff spreads in hospitals quite well so keeping the well people onboard and taking sick people ashore doesn't make a whole bunch of sense.   It is the opposite of a quarantine in my opinion...

[RMMariner]

Has anyone actually seen any reports about how the passengers taken ashore are doing? I think it would allay a lot of fears (or not) if people knew how the sick passengers were actually progressing. 

 

 

 

[NorthwestCruiser]

58 minutes ago, mayleeman said:

 

Although there may be lots of pax who also tested positive who might have been spreading it before they were taken off....NO, the actual question is not academic. I was inquiring to find out the source of your apparently unfounded statement. With an incubation period of up to 14 days, there is no way to tell who infected whom of the positive cases.  

True in general perhaps, but a cruise ship is practically ideal for epidemiological research.   The card keys track the movements of everybody and when aboard the ship the entire population is isolated.    My guess is that they have traced the contacts of everybody who came onboard who could have remotely been a vector -- at least a person-to-person vector.    They probably have a pretty high confidence that they know how this thing started on the ship.    We might not know yet, but we don't need to.

[NorthwestCruiser]

This information from the New England Journal of Medicine may help understand what is likely to happen, a little.

 

This report, to our knowledge, is the largest case series to date of hospitalized patients with NCIP. As of February 3, 2020, of the 138 patients included in this study, 26% required ICU care, 34.1% were discharged, 6 died (4.3%), and 61.6% remain hospitalized. For those who were discharged (n = 47), the hospital stay was 10 days (IQR, 7.0-14.0). The time from onset to dyspnea (labored breathing) was 5.0 days, 7.0 days to hospital admission, and 8.0 days to ARDS (Acute respiratory distress, which most patients did not experience.)  

 

A number of the patients in this study got sick in the hospital where they were being treated for something unrelated, so it is likely that the overall outcomes for the cruise ship passengers will be much better than the numbers in the article.   It does sound like they will be in the hospital at least 10 days, so we are unlikely to hear much for awhile.    Let's pray that everybody comes through unscathed, but it is also  likely that if someone does have a bad outcome we will hear about it well before we hear that anybody has been released, so don't panic.    

 

   NJEM clinical outcomes of 138 coronavirus patients

[Kenswing]

Updated from Princess.. Six new cases..

 

Updated February 8, 2020 at 8:30 PM PT

Diamond Princess Update from Princess Cruises President Jan Swartz

Our global team is working tirelessly to continue supporting Diamond Princess guests and crew during this challenging time. As onboard needs continue to evolve, here’s an update on our current priorities. We will continue to provide updates as they are available.

Watch Video on YouTube

Princess Cruises confirming an additional six cases of Coronavirus, tested by the Japanese Ministry of Health on Diamond Princess. Separately, over the past two days, ten guests were disembarked needing other medical (not for Coronavirus) and were transferred to local hospitals. Information on nationalities of these new guests will be forth coming. 
 
“Our guests and crew onboard Diamond Princess are the focus of our entire global organization right now and all of our hearts are with each of them,” said Jan Swartz, Princess Cruises president. “In this unprecedented situation, the Japanese Ministry of Health authorities are working with us collaboratively on additional enhancements, approving new procedures as we adapt our process to the unique challenges of this situation.”  
 
In partnership with the Japan Ministry of Health the ship has received additional medications which are being sorted and distributed based on medical and urgent priority. 

The company continues to look for the most effective ways to help keep guests healthy, which includes mental health. Telephone access has been arranged for guests experiencing mental stress with trained counselors who can provide support. Both English and Japanese-speaking counselors are available, and guests can call directly from their staterooms.
 
In-stateroom television programming improves by the day and printed newspapers in 30 languages are available. The ship’s entertainment team has added TV satellite stations along with an additional 50+ movies added in various languages and other entertainment. Guests also have access to fitness and exercise videos such as Tai Chi and yoga.

[OzKiwiJJ]

3 hours ago, NorthwestCruiser said:

According to BNO newsroom, "several more" people onboard have fallen sick and been evacuated -- but it is not known at this time if it is related to the virus.   There are many people onboard in less than ideal conditions now so not everything will be the virus, but everything will be treated as if it were.     Sending good thoughts to all affected.   

 

I'm beginning to think that they need to be evacuated to shore.  This must be incredibly stressful, which can weaken the immune system.   I really do not quite understand the thinking, this stuff spreads in hospitals quite well so keeping the well people onboard and taking sick people ashore doesn't make a whole bunch of sense.   It is the opposite of a quarantine in my opinion...

The ship is probably the best quarantine environment possible. Individual cabins. Air con that isn't cross-cabin. Easy to check if people try to break the quarantine. Several galleys for food preparation. Enough crew to handle the limited services. Plenty of open deck space for controlled exercise. Etc, etc, etc!

[LC1950]

Much kudos to Jan Schwartz for sending David Abel a large bottle of Tallisker whisky!!!!!  And it would appear that he is loving it and is so grateful!  A beautiful gesture from the CEO of Princess Cruiselines.  Well done!

 

Great news, hey?

[Pushka]

5 hours ago, LC1950 said:

Much kudos to Jan Schwartz for sending David Abel a large bottle of Tallisker whisky!!!!!  And it would appear that he is loving it and is so grateful!  A beautiful gesture from the CEO of Princess Cruiselines.  Well done!

 

Great news, hey?

His reports have been so positive for Princess and his general attitude as to his situation. Thoroughly deserved. Shame it wasn’t 100 bottles as he first said. Suspect the first dram went straight to the head. 😂