Studies have shown that the Diamond Princess cruise ship's quarantine plans had resulted in more Coronavirus patients than ever before.
It started with Japan's strategy in battling the virus onboard
It has been over two weeks since Diamond Princess was under quarantine ever since a person traveling the cruise ship was tested positive for the virus resulting Japanese authorities to then prohibit the 3,700 passengers that were on board to leave the ship as it reached Yokohama until February 19 as the ship was put into quarantine, and passengers onboard that showed some signs of illness were separated from others. Like any country's priority which is safety of their citizens, the situation that passengers on board the vessel experienced was pretty much chaotic.
In the end, a total of 619 passengers had been infected by the coronavirus due to poor choices and strategies made by the authorities, for example, there were reports of infected passengers that were actually sharing rooms with others who were tested negative which greatly put everyone onboard the ship at risk, and it seems that the situation had gone even worse according to a study held at Umeå University in Sweden.
It has gotten worse there than any major infected areas in China
Joacim Rocklöv, a professor of epidemiology at the university has stated that "The infection rate onboard the vessel was about four times higher than what can be seen on land in the worst infected areas of China. A probable cause is how close people stay to one another onboard a vessel." Rocklöv has also stated that the scenario would have been very different if the Diamond Princess cruise ship had been evacuated immediately upon arrival in Yokohama, and the passengers who were tested positive for the virus had been taken care of.
Their calculations have shown that only around 70 passengers would have been infected instead of a massive 619 which the quarantine resulted in. Japanese experts have also claimed that the passengers of Diamond Princess were greatly mistreated and that the whole virus outbreak should have been handled with more care and better strategies form the authorities that were heading and supervising the coronavirus or COVID-19 quarantine operation at the vessel.
Though the precautionary measures of having to quarantine the entire ship were very much understandable, it still made a chaotic mess due to the high risk of transmission on the vessel which now raises eyebrows to if the decision that was made was actually the right call. Though their study also shows that if these measures of isolating carriers have not been implemented, another 2,300 people would have been infected.
