Quarantine measures for coronavirus disease 2019 on a cruise ship, Taiwan, February 2020

Abstract

To early detect coronavirus disease 2019 on an international cruise ship and prevent its spread, Taiwan's Central Epidemic Command Center implemented on-board quarantine measures on a cruise ship docked at the Port of Keelung, Taiwan, on February 8, 2020. Quarantine officers, medical professionals, and administrative staff from competent authorities conducted fever screening and investigated the present illness and travel history of 1738 passengers and 776 crew members on the ship. Throat swabs were collected from 128 (5.1%) passengers and crew members with fever or respiratory symptoms during the past 14 days or travel history to China, Hong Kong, or Macao within 30 days. All swabs tested negative for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 at the national reference laboratory. The whole process, from on-board preparation to the completion of testing, took 9 h. All passengers and crew were permitted to disembark and were required to take 14-day self-health management measures. No cases were reported by the end of the self-health management period.

Keywords: COVID-19; Quarantine; Ships; Taiwan.

Figure 1

Flow chart of on-board quarantine measures on Cruise A: gray areas indicate indoor regions. ^aTravel to China, Hong Kong, or Macao. ^bEar temperature >38 °C. ^cCough, rhinorrhea, or shortness of breath.