Local authorities praised for swift action on cruise ship fever cases

The Costa Serena returned to Tianjin on Jan 25 after traveling to Fukuoka and Sasebo, Japan. It was subject to speedy emergency response measures, and problems were resolved quickly.

While the ship was still at sea, the Tianjin government was warned that some people aboard had fevers. There were 148 passengers from Hubei province, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak.

In an interview with China Daily, Costa Cruises made its first public comment on the rescue.

The company lauded the action of multiple government entities in Tianjin, Binhai New Area and Dongjiang, a free trade area where the cruise liner is berthed, as “timely and effective.”

The spokesperson said that the day the Costa Serena arrived in Tianjin, staff from the local health department and Chinese Customs were allowed on board for an inspection.

“Seventeen individuals with fever were found through temperature screening,” the spokesperson said.

A helicopter carried the medical samples to waiting police, who took them by motor vehicle to a laboratory for testing. Subsequent nucleic acid tests of all 17 came back negative.

After the checks, passengers from Hubei were sent to a centralized quarantine facility, and others were allowed to leave.

After 14 days of quarantine, with free medical assistance, accommodations, food services and stringent health checks, the Hubei passengers were cleared.

On the trip, there were 17 people with fever - one of the key symptoms of the disease - but within 24 hours, the emergency had ended and all the patients had been dealt with carefully, leaving no confirmed cases.

On the day of disembarkation, Serena anchored prior to entering the port, as per the request from Tianjin government, allowing staff from the local health department and Customs to get on board for inspection.

The transportation of the nuclide acid sample was undertaken rapidly and with an efficiency that was widely lauded.

After the samples were collected, they were loaded onto a helicopter and sent to Tanggu Airport. Special police vehicles waiting at the airport then seamlessly transported the samples to local disease prevention authorities.

The NCP test results showed that all 17 samples came back negative, according to the Tianjin government, which was good news for all parties involved.

In addition, a spokesperson for Costa said: “The health authority of Tianjin Binhai New District arranged accommodation for all Hubei passengers for quarantine and medical observation, with daily temperature screening.”

Passengers who were supposed to embark on the next cruise that same day all had their trip cancelled and received full refunds, the spokesperson added.

After the tests had come back negative, the Binhai government arranged for the Hubei passengers to be centrally quarantined at a hotel with free medical assistance, food and accommodation, and after 14 days, they were discharged. All were in a healthy condition.

“If they prefer to stay in Tianjin for a few days, we will also provide as much help as possible for them,” said Yang Maorong, director of Binhai New Area.

Niu Rong, a Wuhan resident who joined the quarantine with her daughter, said: “When reading the Diamond Princess news a few days later, we really appreciated the speed of the cooperation between Costa and Tianjin local authorities.”

According to Costa, the company has stringent report plans for emergency rescue.

It reported the list of Hubei passengers and those who got fever during the voyage, and facilitated the boarding of government officials and health care professionals in order to conduct temperature screening of all passengers and crew members and to take samples of fever cases for further examination.

Yang Liu, vice-director of Dongjiang Free Trade Area, recalled: “The delay of disembarking would usually cause passengers stress and worry. But in Serena, they were excited to know the results and nobody complained about the delay at all.

“More impressively, we’re delighted to see many of them gave a ‘thumbs up’ to our actions including the following bus and hotel arrangements.”

Both the Diamond Princess, a United Kingdom-flagged vessel owned and operated by Princess Cruises, and the Costa Serena, all belong to the United States company Carnival Corp, and all have the same stringent rules for warning about health conditions.