Cruise Ships

This page collects observations, interpretations, and consequences for action about Cruise Ships and SARS-CoV2. Please observe the structure of the page, when you add your content. Please use references where possible. Remember to find the relevant page. For example, if your observation is about transmission routes, please use that page, instead of posting your content here.

What is already known

On 20 January 2020, an 80-year-old passenger from Hong Kong embarked in Yokohama, sailed one segment of the itinerary, and disembarked in Hong Kong on 25 January. He visited a local Hong Kong hospital, six days after leaving the ship, where he later tested positive for COVID-19 on 1 February. On its next voyage, 4 February, the ship was in Japanese waters when 10 passengers were diagnosed with COVID-19 during the 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic.

The ship was quarantined on 4 February 2020 in the Port of Yokohama in Japan. The infected included at least 138 from India (including 132 crew and 6 passengers), 35 Filipinos, 32 Canadians, 24 Australians, 13 Americans, 4 Indonesians, 4 Malaysians, and 2 Britons. Home countries arranged to evacuate their citizens and quarantine them further in their own countries. As of 1 March, all on board including the crew and the captain had disembarked.

As of 16 March 2020, at least 712 out of the 3,711 passengers and crew had tested positive for the virus. As of March 24, ten of those who were on board have died from the disease.