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Coronavirus: anger and frustration among cruise evacuees 3:22
(CNN) - Some passengers and crew are still aboard the Diamond Princess cruise after the 14-day quarantine in Japan for the coronavirus, but this is not the end of the ship's life at sea.
On April 29, after what Carnival Corp. - parent company of Princess Cruises - says it will be a complete sanitation process, the 116,000-ton vessel will resume its services.
The Wall Street Journal initially reported the cruise plans, shortly after two of the people with the ship's coronavirus died.
The Diamond Princess began quarantining its passengers more than two weeks ago. And the desired landing began on Wednesday.
Woman cries when disembarking the cruise ship in quarantine 3:14The number of passengers on the ship was 2,666 plus 1,045 people in the crew. More than 600 cases of coronaviruses have been linked to the vessel.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) called for additional travel restrictions and quarantine measures for passengers after assessing the situation aboard the Diamond Princess.
"While the quarantine potentially granted a significant benefit to public health by slowing down the transmission, the CDC's assessment is that it may not have been sufficient to prevent transmission among people on board the ship," the CDC said in a statement on February 18
Deep cleaning
The Diamond Princess cruise ship is anchored in the port of Yokohama. The ship will sail after a great cleaning effort. (Credit: Tomohiro Ohsumi / Getty Images)
Once all people disembark, the cruise will undergo a deep cleaning before spending some time in a dry dock.
Princess Cruises is working with the Japanese Ministry of Health on sanitation issues, the public relations director of the cruise line, Negin Kamali, told CNN Travel.
The expectation, Kamali explained, “is that the ship is completely disinfected by a cleaning company with experience in this area, following the guidelines of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. and the World Health Organization. ”
Kamali said details about the cleaning and sanitation process will be shared after they have been approved by the necessary public health authorities.
- READ: Diamond Princess cruise passengers disembark after a 14-day quarantine off the coast of Japan
It is not unusual for a cruise affected by an illness outbreak to return to service after a period. And the Diamond Princess should, according to the average life cycle of this type of vessel, have almost 15 more years of sailing.
The coronavirus outbreak occurred during a trip that should have ended two weeks ago. Earlier this month, Princess Cruises canceled trips aboard Diamond Princess until March 12.
An online publication last February 15 extended the cancellations until April 20 "due to the long period of quarantine and the anticipated time to prepare the ship to return to service."
The return scheduled for April 29 coincides with the start of the annual Golden Week celebrations in Japan.
Colleen McDaniel, editor-in-chief of Cruise Critic, described this as a unique situation and adds that "it is difficult to think of another historically comparable one."
The fears of the cruise crew in quarantine 3:46However, McDaniel said, “It is a normal protocol for a ship to undergo very thorough sanitation after any illness reported on board. Usually, that cleaning does not take more than a day, so this is certainly more extensive than usual. Cruise lines always put passenger safety first, so you can be sure that the decision about when the Diamond Princess would return to service was not taken lightly, ”he added.
Tackle or not
McDaniel, who will board a cruise on Friday to the Bahamas, acknowledges that the decision to travel at this time is personal.
Angel Wilson, a travel consultant at Dream Journeys in Indianapolis, was scheduled to depart at the Diamond Princess on March 24 for a spring break trip in Japan, but Princess Cruises canceled that tour and offered customers a full refund of the Cruise fare, plus a 25% credit for a future cruise.
Wilson still plans to make the trip to Japan with his mother and daughter, but says it will be a less economical overland transfer instead.
- MIRA: Crews working on the Diamond Princess cruise ship do not have quarantine protection
He says he is optimistic about the future of the Diamond Princess: “I have faith that Princess Cruises will prepare the ship completely before allowing passengers to return on board. I know they already have a very complete plan to move the ship to a facility and clean / disinfect it under the strictest hospital standards. ”
He added: "I wonder if they will end up deciding the route taken by other cruise lines, which is simply canceling the Asian 2020 season and relocating the ship, once it is ready for service again."
The International Cruise Lines Association (CLIA) industrial group has launched improved protocols for its member cruise lines in response to the coronavirus outbreak. Individual cruise lines have also intensified passenger control and restrictions to avoid the presence of the virus on board ships.
Cruise control
The ship is expected to return to the sea on April 29 after a rigorous cleaning effort. (Credit: The Asahi Shimbun / Getty Images)
The situation in Asia has already caused the cancellation of many trips in the region and has raised doubts about whether tourists going to cruise ships in other places have a higher risk of contracting the virus.
It is unlikely, experts say.
"I think there is an extremely low risk of contracting the new coronavirus on a cruise," said Dr. John Lynch, a specialist in infectious diseases and travel medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine.
The vast majority of cases focus on the Chinese province of Hubei, where there is a massive containment effort to stop the spread of the virus, Lynch said.
Cruise lines are also paying close attention to the origin of the passengers and take the threat very seriously, he added.
CNN's Marnie Hunter contributed to this story.
coronavirus Wuhan coronavirus