Hong Kong, January 5, 2022 – From cruise to odyssey. Thousands of people are stranded in the bay of Hong Kong on board the ship ‘Spectrum of the Seas‘of Royal Caribbean. Nine passengers turned out close contacts of a positive at Covid, whose infection was attributable to variante Omicron. According to local authorities, a valid reason to recall the giant of the seas returned to port today after setting sail on Sunday for a cruise. Now all passengers must be swabbed so as to extinguish any outbreaks in the bud. Scenes already seen during the first wave of the Coronavirus that we were no longer used to. A government adviser said he feared there were “10 invisible transmission chains” in the city that could threaten Hong Kong’s ‘zero Covid’ strategy. They must be identified and made safe.
On December 31, after three months without ‘internal’ infections, the first case of Omicron in the community local. Since then, a relentless hunt for infections has begun: to save the tracking. Hong Kong is poised to further tighten existing restrictions.
Today’s news that in order to stem Omicron, inbound flights from eight countries have been banned: Australia, Canada, France, India, Pakistan, Philippines, United Kingdom and United States. “Passenger flights from these countries will not be able to land and people who have stayed in those countries will not be able to board flights to Hong Kong, including transit flights,” Governor Carrie Lam explained.
Already now, cruises are limited to short voyages and to nearby locations with ships having to operate on a reduced capacity regime. Only passengers vaccinated with a negative test are allowed on board.
But, in this case, it was not enough: the ‘Spectrum of the Seas’ had about 2,500 tourists and 1,500 employees on board. The ascertained ‘patient zero’ is on the ground: he would have danced on New Year’s Eve in a square in the city center with about twenty friends. Two of them tested positive for Coronavirus: among them a domestic worker whose employer, along with eight close contacts, sailed on the cruise ship on Sunday. The circle for the health authorities closes like this: the ‘Spectrum of the Seas’ must be tested from top to bottom, while the nine contacts have been transferred to a quarantine center. Meanwhile, passengers spend these hours (days for some) in captivity. Photos and videos circulate that portray them in ordinary fragments of everyday life, killing time while waiting for the tampon.
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