A ship on a ‘cruise to nowhere’ had to make an unscheduled return to Singapore on Wednesday after one of the members inside the cruise tested positive for COVID-19, AFP reported quoting ship authorities. The cruise had at least 1,646 passengers and 1,249 crew members aboard. 

Soon after the infection case was detected, all the passengers and crew staff inside the Dream Cruises ship were asked to remain in their cabins until the vessel is completely disinfected and contact tracing is completed, the Singapore Tourism Board’s director for cruises said.

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“The passenger was identified as a close contact of a confirmed case on land, and was immediately isolated as part of onboard health protocols,” said Annie Chang.

The person who was tested COVID positive is 40-year-old and was taken to the hospital for further investigation after which the health ministry later confirmed the passenger had the virus. At the time of boarding the cruise, the person tested nagative for COVID.

Some reports by the local media said that the guest who got the infection was fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

Explaining the actions taken after the detection, Chang said that the three travelling companions of the infected guest have been identified and isolated. All three were tested negative for COVID on being examined.

The cruises — starting and ending in Singapore, with no stops — were launched last year as part of the travel industry’s attempt to bounce back from a pandemic-induced crunch.

The ship, owned and operated by Malaysian conglomerate Genting Group, left Singapore on Sunday evening for the four-day cruise and returned to port several hours earlier than scheduled.

Genting’s Dream Cruises said it cancelled a voyage scheduled to depart later Wednesday, and that there had been no virus infections on any of its previous cruises.

Similarly, a Royal Caribbean “cruise to nowhere” was cut short in December after an elderly man tested positive for COVID. However, that case proved to be a false alarm, with subsequent results coming back negative.

In June, the first post-COVID-19 pandemic cruise ship of the US sailed away with nearly 1100 fully vaccinated passengers on board. The COVID-19 pandemic has adversely affected the US cruise industry that faced a $32 billion loss in 2020 alone.