Apex crew tests positive for COVID-19

[Happy Cruiser 6143]

NBC News has reported that 157 crew members on Apex have tested positive for COVID-19 and that not all crew members have been tested yet.  That's pretty sad news.  I hope the other ships don't have that many crew members affected.

[keesar]

This was NOT social distancing.  And it is not so funny now. 

[lori-annk]

This is horribly 😢 

[steamboats]

6 hours ago, Happy Cruiser 6143 said:

NBC News has reported that 157 crew members on Apex have tested positive for COVID-19 and that not all crew members have been tested yet.  That's pretty sad news.  I hope the other ships don't have that many crew members affected.

 

That´s a couple of days ago... Half of the tests have been done by Tuesday and the rest on Wednesday. They are working on evacuating all crew which is supposed to start by next week.

 

Some subcontractors and Europeans were able to leave the ship already.

 

steamboats

[The_Big_M]

Well, they can't blame that one on passengers.

[KateWes]

1 hour ago, The_Big_M said:

Well, they can't blame that one on passengers.

agreed! Very sad though as I’m sure they had a false sense of security on board! 

[excitedofharpenden]

Captain Tassos' confident post on Instagram is looking pretty hollow now. 

 

Phil 

[Georgia_Peaches]

Is there any word on how the sick crew members are being treated?  Are they being treated on the ship or have they been evacuated?

[Orator]

I don't read Instagram, but isn't Tasos assigned to Equinox? I believe his brother is on Apex.

[jelayne]

2 minutes ago, Orator said:

I don't read Instagram, but isn't Tasos assigned to Equinox? I believe his brother is on Apex.

You are correct.

[steamboats]

1 hour ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

Is there any word on how the sick crew members are being treated?  Are they being treated on the ship or have they been evacuated?

Those who need medical treatment in a hospital have been transferred to local hospitals.

 

steamboats

[NutsAboutGolf]

Articles state they won't release the latest test results until next week.

[excitedofharpenden]

53 minutes ago, Orator said:

I don't read Instagram, but isn't Tasos assigned to Equinox? I believe his brother is on Apex.

This Captain Tasos. 

 

Phil 

[TeeRick]

1 hour ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

Is there any word on how the sick crew members are being treated?  Are they being treated on the ship or have they been evacuated?

This is really heartbreaking for APEX and I am so sorry for the crew.  What a large number now and climbing.  But this is interesting to me for a different reason because APEX was sort of a self-contained laboratory .  It is just the scientist in me I guess.  How many crew test positive vs. how many actually get sick vs. how many need to be hospitalized?  This will be important data to the medical community.  This has been researched on Diamond Princess and reported recently in scientific journals if anybody is interested. Anything we can learn from real data and cases is incredibly important.  There is so much misinformation out there.

[39august]

And what did we learn from Princess, please?  I do agree that just knowing how many tested positive is not enough information. 

[TeeRick]

There is a very good summary in the highly respected journal NATURE.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-00885-w

[DYKWIA]

1 hour ago, excitedofharpenden said:

This Captain Tasos. 

 

Phil 

 

That tweet has not aged well.  Sadly, we are all learning a lot.

[39august]

TeeRick.  Thanks for the article. 

[NMTraveller]

2 hours ago, TeeRick said:

This is really heartbreaking for APEX and I am so sorry for the crew.  What a large number now and climbing.  But this is interesting to me for a different reason because APEX was sort of a self-contained laboratory .  It is just the scientist in me I guess.  How many crew test positive vs. how many actually get sick vs. how many need to be hospitalized?  This will be important data to the medical community.  This has been researched on Diamond Princess and reported recently in scientific journals if anybody is interested. Anything we can learn from real data and cases is incredibly important.  There is so much misinformation out there.

 

What I thought was interesting about this story is that 80% of the people that tested positive did not show symptoms.  It is a much younger and healthier crowd than the typical passengers on a cruise ship.  Perhaps this accounts for the rapid spread in the US.  You have a bunch of people spreading with no/minimal symptoms?

Edited April 3, 2020 by NMTraveller

[lostchild]

1 hour ago, NMTraveller said:

 

What I thought was interesting about this story is that 80% of the people that tested positive did not show symptoms.  It is a much younger and healthier crowd than the typical passengers on a cruise ship.  Perhaps this accounts for the rapid spread in the US.  You have a bunch of people spreading with no/minimal symptoms?

 

I really think that's the case.  Here, you still can't get tested if you show minimal symptoms.   I think our family all got covid-19 back in February.  We have similar symptoms but very mild like a cold.   Coughs, sore throats, low fever comes and go.   At the time we thought it was just common cold and it could be... except for the shortness of breath.   It was not normal for us with common cold.    Anyway, we are recovered and waiting for the antibody test so we could know if we already have it or not.

[The_Big_M]

Here's the link so you can read the full post.

 

Not sure how gathering a bunch of people together against recommendations while a virus spreads is representative of hope.

[jelayne]

  I believe Captain Tasos who is one of the Equinox captains is on vacation.  His brother, Captain Dimitrios is the Apex Captain. So possibly Tasos was visiting  his brother when the picture was taken.  
 

 Not sure how a team of people whose job is to get a ship set up and ready for passengers could do that while staying 6’ apart.  

[steamboats]

Read the post closely ... Captain Tasos says that the crew of the Apex took this photo and he had to share it. So he´s not onboard.

 

steamboats

[Saab4444]

Captain Tasos just shared the photo from his brother who is on the ship. It was taken before the social distancing became common practice everywhere so it should not be taken to blame someone now. How this developed is just bad luck for the ship and crew and it can happen on any ship or in any office place if you still have to work close together. 

[TeeRick]

19 hours ago, 39august said:

TeeRick.  Thanks for the article. 

Yes I found it interesting.  There will be a lot of info published in the future on these cruise ship case studies.  Quite an unfortunate situation on these ships could have a slight silver lining and provide useful data to the medical and scientific communities.  They also might also provide some guidance to the cruiselines in dealing with infectious agents.