Boats, Quarantine and COVID-19

Spoiler: This is about contagion. Closed environments like cruise ships, aircraft carriers, jails and airplanes—to name a few—are places where infections are spread easily. Close quarters do not allow for the social distancing, deep cleaning and “no touch” environment to stop virus spread.

A few days ago, a friend in FL sent this pic of a group of cruise ships waiting to come into port. Later, I read the story of two cruise ships trying to dock in the Ft. Lauderdale area and negotiating with local authorities. Both ships had sick people—in fact, two people died on one of the cruise ships.

The locals were talking about not wanting more sick people who would tax the local health systems. Others talked about flying people to their homes in the US and overseas. Local governments wanted a plan from the cruise line on how they were going to participate in the evacuation effort.

At the same time, the US Navy aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt had identified a number of sick sailors with COVID and needed to do something. As I write this, a plan is underway to evacuate the ship—all 3700 sailors and test and quarantine or isolate to stop COVID-19 transmission.