Hong Kong Prevents Royal Caribbean's Spectrum Of The Seas Cruise Ship From Sailing After Crew Suspected Of Infecting With COVID-19

Illustration of the Spectrum of The Seas cruise ship operated by Royal Caribbean. (Wikimedia Commons/Dickelbers)

JAKARTA - Hong Kong authorities prevented a cruise ship operated by Royal Caribbean from leaving the country's port on Thursday night, because a crew member was suspected of having COVID-19 after routine testing, the government and cruise operators said.

Royal Caribbean's Spectrum of the Seas cruise ship, scheduled to embark on a 'sail everywhere' voyage in nearby waters, is limited to half capacity and only for fully vaccinated residents who test negative for the virus 48 hours prior to travel.

About 1.000 passengers out of a total of 1.200 had boarded the cruise before the four-night trip was cancelled. All had to undergo mandatory tests, but were allowed to leave the ship because they had no direct contact with the crew.

"In today's routine COVID-19 tests on crew members, we identified one crew member who was tested indeterminate. After testing a secondary sample, the test yielded an initial positive for COVID-19," Royal Caribbean said in a statement on Facebook, cited from Reuters, October 22.

The 40-year-old crew member tested positive for COVID-19 in Malaysia in July and has since tested negative more than 10 times since returning to Hong Kong in August. He was fully vaccinated with China's Sinovac vaccine.

His last sample was collected on October 19 and had a 'very low viral load', the Center for Health Protection said in a statement, adding he was asymptomatic and the decision to detain the vessel was a "wise action".

To note, Hong Kong has some of the strictest travel restrictions in the world and is virtually COVID-19 free. The Chinese-ruled city has reported more than 12.300 cases since the start of the pandemic, mostly imported cases and 213 deaths.