International maritime health
Volume 71, Issue 1
Dahl, E.
Introduction
The whole world has recently been following the media frenzy covering the quarantine of Diamond Princess, the first cruise ship that had an outbreak of coronavirus illness (Covid-19) on board. It developed soon after the occurrence of China’s Covid-19 outbreak, which — according to the World Health Organization (WHO) — “poses a very grave threat for the rest of the world” and should be viewed as “Public Enemy Number 1” [1]. Lasting more than 14 days, the ship quarantine is unprecedented for the cruise industry, and some maritime health issues of concern may be worth addressing already shortly after the interned passengers and crew had finally disembarked the vessel.
Keywords
coronavirus, COVID-19, outbreak, passengers, crew, cruise ship medicine