February 23, 2020

expert reaction to news that four Diamond Princess passengers quarantined in Britain have tested positive for COVID-19

Four passengers of the quarantined Diamond Princess cruise ship, who have now returned to Britain, have tested positive for COVID-19.

Dr Nathalie MacDermott, NIHR Academic Clinical Lecturer, King’s College London, said: 

“It is not surprising that some of the British passengers repatriated from the Diamond Princess cruise ship have tested positive for SARS-COV2. It was apparent over the course of last week that quarantine on board the ship had failed as there were daily increasing numbers of COVID-19 identified on board. It was for this reason that the UK government sensibly required a further 14 day quarantine period for the repatriated passengers. We have already seen several of the passengers repatriated to the US, Australia and Israel test positive for the virus after their repatriation, so it was expected that some of the UK passengers may also test positive on their return home.”

Prof Sheila Bird, Formerly Programme Leader, MRC Biostatistics Unit, University of Cambridge, said:

“Quarantine is intended to be for 14 days after the last potential contact with COVID-19 for those who are held in quarantine. Hence, those being looked after in the Wirral will be extra-scrupulous in the precautions they take, as will those who are monitoring their health. Hopefully, those newly diagnosed were only mildly symptomatic and will make a full recovery. The contacts of the four include their aircrew and several ground-transport staff so that the most recent UK-contact-network extends beyond those in the Wirral quarantine-venue. 

“Since UK has now had at least four foci  – two separate incursions from China {family-pair; London arrival}; one via Singapore and his transmission network {in UK, France and Spain}; the set of four newly-diagnosed from the Diamond Princess. Detailed work on genomic variation may be informative across these and future UK-networks.”

Prof Keith Neal, Emeritus professor of Epidemiology of Infectious Diseases, University of Nottingham, said: 

“This is not surprising news as transmission was ongoing on the Diamond Princess and it was not working as a quarantine – look at the number of cases daily. The UK authorities brought the passengers home as they would have continued to be at risk staying on the ship. These infected individuals will be kept in isolation and will be of no risk to the UK public.”  

All our previous output on this subject can be seen at this weblink:

http://www.sciencemediacentre.org/tag/covid-19

The SMC also produced a Factsheet on COVID-19 which is available here:

https://www.sciencemediacentre.org/smc-novel-coronavirus-factsheet/

Declared interests

Prof Neal: None 

None others received