Dream Cruises Ship World Dream Turned Back to Singapore After a Person Was Suspected to Have COVID-19

By
Jorryn
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Imagine signing up for a cruise because you’ve finally had enough of being stuck in your homes, but then everything goes wrong.

Long story short: a suspected COVID-19 case was discovered on board (again).

In the end, you find that you’ve just gone from being stuck in your home to being stuck on a ship.

Cruise Ship Turns Back to S’pore After Suspected COVID-19 Case Discovered

On Wednesday (14 July), at around 6.30am, a cruise ship returned to Singapore a few hours earlier than scheduled.

The reason?

A COVID-19 case had been discovered on board.

Departing on Sunday (11 July), the Dream Cruises ship World Dream had been operating on a four-day, three-night cruise to nowhere. It had been carrying 1,646 passengers and 1,249 crew members.

It was originally scheduled to return to Marina Bay Cruise Centre around 9am on Wednesday, but was forced to turn back earlier than planned when a COVID-19 case had been discovered among its passengers.

As it turns out, a 40-year-old passenger had been identified as a close contact of a confirmed COVID-19 case on Tuesday (13 July).

According to Singapore Tourism Board’s (STB) director of cruise Annie Chang on Wednesday, the passenger was immediately isolated as part of onboard health protocols, with their cabin being blocked off until further notice.

Within an hour, close contacts of the suspected COVID-19 case were also identified, with the cruise ship drawing on information from “passengers’ wearable devices, keycards and CCTV footage”, said Dream Cruise in a statement.

In her statement, Ms Chang also revealed that the passenger had tested positive for COVID-19 after undergoing polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests.

The passenger had earlier tested negative on the day of the cruise ship’s departure, during the mandatory pre-departure antigen rapid test. According to The Straits Times, Dream Cruises had told its passengers in a notice that the infected passenger had received both doses of the COVID-19 vaccination.

The passenger has since been taken to a hospital for further confirmatory testing upon arrival in Singapore. Three travelling companions were also identified and isolated as part of onboard health protocols, though they have tested negative for COVID-19.

Precautionary Measures 

“All on-board leisure activities have ceased and passengers have been asked to remain in their cabins until the confirmatory test results are out and contact tracing is complete. In the meantime, they are being given regular updates and contactless meals are provided directly to their cabins,” Ms Chang said.

She assured that the”well-being and safety of our local community, as well as passengers and crew, remain our top priority.”

According to The Straits Times, the guests onboard World Dream were asked to return to their cabins at 1am.

Full cleaning and sanitisation are being carried out on the cruise ship, including areas that had previously been visited by the suspected COVID-19 case. Dream Cruise, the cruise operator, has also cancelled an upcoming three-day, two-night World Dream cruise as a precautionary measure.

It was originally scheduled to depart at 9pm on Wednesday.

Affected passengers of the cancelled cruise can choose to transfer to other cruise dates, opt for a future cruise credit or get a full refund. They would have to contact their original booking source for the necessary arrangements.

Dream Cruise said in a statement: “As safety is paramount, we thank you in advance for your kind understanding on this necessary cancellation in view of the situation.”

Remaining Passengers Stuck on Board till Further Notice

The drop-off point at the cruise centre has already been secured by about 20 staff who were tasked to ensure nobody entered the area, reported The Straits Times, who visited the cruise centre early on Wednesday morning.

According to the ship’s captain in an update at 10.15am, the suspected COVID-19 case had disembarked the ship at around 9.20am. Dream Cruises subsequently assured that the suspected COVID-19 case and his three close contacts had left the ship through a planned route separate from the rest of the passengers.

“The reported guest’s travelling companions and individuals who have been identified as close contacts of the reported guest will disembark subsequently, via a different route and gangway from all remaining guests,” said the company.

Currently, only the suspected case and the close contacts have left the cruise ship. All other passengers remain on board, and it is unclear when they can disembark—this would depend on the results of further tests carried out on the suspected case and the close contacts.

Now you might be getting confused, because it was reported that the 40-year-old man had tested positive during the PCR test.

While that may be true, it doesn’t hurt to double-confirm the results.

Last November, Genting Cruise Lines and Royal Caribbean International were given the go-ahead to offer cruises to nowhere from Singapore, albeit under a pilot scheme with strict safety measures.

In December last year, there had been a similar situation where Royal Caribbean cruise ship Quantum of the Seas returned one day earlier on what was supposed to be a four-day voyage.

Just like the current case, an 83-year-old male passenger had tested positive for COIVD-19 on board the ship. However, subsequent tests after the ship’s return to Singapore instead showed that the passengers actually did not have COVID-19—the earlier result had been a false positive.

Hopefully, this would be another case of a false positive.

World Dream cruises had resumed operations on 14 June, at a reduced passenger capacity of 50 per cent.

Featured Image: ARTYOORAN / Shutterstock.com (Image is for illustration purpose only)

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Jorryn
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