All 157 passengers and crew aboard the Explorer Dream cruise ship, which resumed services Friday following a pandemic-induced seven-month pause, have tested negative for COVID-19 and are free to disembark, according to the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s Keelung Hospital Sunday.
The Explorer Dream, part of Dream Cruises, left Keelung Friday for a two-night round trip cruise to Hualien County in eastern Taiwan to celebrate the arrival of the new year, the ship’s first sailing since May.
Prior to boarding, all passengers were required to have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 for at least 14 days and also had to provide a negative PCR COVID-19 test result with a test specimen collected 48 hours before the departure date.
The Explorer Dream also has a professional medical team consisting of a doctor and five other personnel on board, with backup support from 26 hospitals under the health ministry, Keelung Hospital said in a statement.
Cruise Industry News Quarterly Magazine’s website said the ship was equipped with negative-pressure isolation wards and eight PCR testing machines, including six newly added VitaPCR PCR Instruments that can check for infectious diseases such as COVID-19 within 20 minutes.
One of the first cruise ships to resume services in Taiwan, the Explorer Dream has recorded no COVID-19 related incidents to date, according to Cruise Industry News Quarterly Magazine.
More than 90,000 guests sailed on the Explorer Dream between July 2020 and May 2021, according to Cruise Industry News Quarterly Magazine data.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel