Coronavirus: Singapore cruise ship scare highlights challenges in resuming tourism

Name: Coronavirus case on board 'cruise to nowhere' forces ship to return to Singapore
Uploaded: 2020-12-10T03:24:09.000Z
Duration: 1 min 59 s
Description: Coronavirus case on board 'cruise to nowhere' forces ship to return to Singapore

The early end of the Royal Caribbean Quantum of the Seas ‘cruise to nowhere’ comes soon after Singapore’s travel bubble with Hong Kong was postponed

Singapore’s attempts to enliven tourism underscore the difficulties Asian destinations face in restarting travel – as Japan, Thailand and Bali found

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Coronavirus case on board 'cruise to nowhere' forces ship to return to Singapore

Bloomberg

Published: 11:24am, 10 Dec 2020Updated: 12:17pm, 10 Dec 2020

The optimism on display just two months ago when Singapore Transport Minister Ong Ye Kung pledged to reopen the city state and its tourism-reliant economy has taken a beating after a possible local coronavirus case was found aboard one of Royal Caribbean ships.

In the early hours of Wednesday morning, the 1,680 passengers and 1,148 crew on Quantum of the Seas – enjoying day three of a four-day “cruise to nowhere” – were alerted to an announcement that a suspected case of Covid-19 had been discovered. The voyage was being cut short and everyone should remain in their staterooms.

It was the second blow in as many months after a highly anticipated air travel bubble with Hong Kong was axed before it even started, leaving would-be travellers on both sides of the South China Sea stranded, their hopes of quarantine-free reunions with family and friends dashed.

As Wednesday dragged on, some people on the ship, now back at the Marina Bay Cruise Centre, took to their balconies for fresh air in an all-too familiar 2020 sight – another floating palace, docked but isolated as the arduous process of contact tracing and testing gets under way.

The 83-year-old male who tested positive was found to be negative in subsequent tests, though health officials plan to conduct an additional test on Thursday, Singapore Ministry of Health said.