A cruise ship belonging to a US shipping company with almost 1,700 passengers on board has returned prematurely from a four-day voyage to its port of origin, Singapore, after a coronavirus case. The infected passenger was an 83-year-old man from Singapore, said the cruise director of the Singapore Tourism Association, Annie Chang, according to a newspaper report today.
The man had gone on board the „Quantum of the Seas“ of the Royal Caribbean shipping company with a negative coronavirus test. According to the local newspaper „The Straits Times“, he has since been taken to a hospital.
According to the newspaper, the “Quantum of the Seas” itself arrived in Singapore yesterday at 8:00 am – one day earlier than planned. The other travelers and the nearly 1,150 crew members would have to stay on board until the contact tracing was completed, Chang said.
The four day cruise was a „trip to nowhere“ around Singapore. Royal Caribbean wanted to resume cruise tourism in Singapore, which had been idle for months due to the coronavirus pandemic. This new type of cruise – namely travel with luxury liners without stopping and going ashore – was announced by the Singapore Tourist Board in October.
