I think if we thought about all the places germs might lurk we’d drive ourselves crazy. I was thinking about this thread when I was given a grungy pen to sign for my lunch charge. I went right home and washed my hands before eating, but between the pen and home I touched the door to the store, my credit card, phone, keys, car door handle, steering wheel, shopping bags, shared entry door and probably something else I haven’t even thought of.
We stopped at McDonald’s coming back from a volleyball tournament recently, and you had to order on this giant touch screen (with an employee telling us how to do it…) and all I could think of was how filthy it was. Thank goodness for hand sanitizer.
@cptofthehouse Yes, kids do all kinds of things. I have seen more than once kids playing sandbox at Whole Foods bulk section. The spouts at watering stations are still safe. If they can reach the spout, they are too old to play with water at the watering station. I agree with @Sue22. We do what we can to be safe but we should also live our lives. I will wash my hands and may carry Clorox wipes but that’s where I’d stop.
When ingesting products prepared by and handled by random fast food employees, the touch screen is probably the least of your worries.
Sure, but I’m not looking to introduce more germs than the ones I’ve already signed up for by eating there.
The Diamond Princess has 65 new cases, bringing the total to 135. ?
The Westerdam is going to disembark in Bangkok, Thailand on Thursday. All guests passed a temperature test, for what it’s worth, and no one is symptomatic so no quarantine.
I’ve been following this because I was with my mom on her last cruise on the Westerdam (in the Caribbean) so have a fondness for the ship.
NY Times article about conditions on the Diamond Princess (where confirmed cases have doubled, to 135, as noted upthread):
While guests are isolated in their cabins, crew continue living in cramped conditions on lower decks, eating in communal mess halls, multiple people sharing cabins, toilets, showers. These same crew members are preparing food and delivering it door to door to guests. Crew have been given masks, gloves and hand sanitizer (and are no doubt trying their best), but of course they are not trained medical professionals.
“We have to remember that quarantines protect those outside the quarantine, not those within,” says infectious disease expert at Univ. of Wash.
Ugh, just thinking of all the computer tablets at every seat at every restaurant and bar in the Philadelphia airport. Blech.
Here’s my issue with the RCCL policy on no passport holders from China, etc. As I said before, it’s utterly illogical but I’ll go further.
I assume that you have to show your passport before getting on the cruise, hence how they know you’re a passport holder of X country, correct? In that case, it should say - either on the passport (stamp) or in the system (electronic “stamp”) when the last time you visited Y country.
I want to know why they’re not using that. If you’re a passport holder from China but have been in the US since December, you’re not a risk. Being a Chinese national isn’t in and of itself risky.
But if you’re a US passport holder who has been to China in the last week, you MAY be at risk. It seems much more logical to screen out that person than the Chinese national, no?
Tell me what I’m missing here because I truly do not understand.
Romani:
the short answer is that RCCL has banned both folks in your hypo.
It is very common for passports to remain unstamped at immigration. While the authorities in the PRC do indeed have an electronic record of entries to their country, that information is not public.
Exactly. I feel badly for every person on that ship. Pretty crappy situation and poor luck. Actually being ill enough to be removed from the ship but not too ill to be at risk of dying might be the best scenario.
Agree with others that passports are often not stamped these days.
Also, I doubt RCCL has access to the electronic info. They aren’t CBP or a government organization.
Yes, I know. I was the one who originally said that several pages back.
Why would they not have that information? They go on cruises to international destinations and you need to go by customs to get back into the US. If you are not a US citizen, you are required to have a valid visa which would presumably have dates on it, no?
Even if a ship is doing a US to US trip, would those resources not still be there even if they’re not normally used?
Other cruise lines are banning people who have been to China, etc in the last 2 weeks (which will probably now be upped). Why is RCCL choosing this dramatic path? How are the others enforcing it?
I wouldn’t want a cruise line having all my personal info. Heck, I don’t even like the government having it but no choice. So, you want cruise lines and airlines to have access to the same info that the government has? How about Amtrak and Greyhound? It just doesn’t work that way, thankfully. I’m sure those civil liberties experts would have a field day with that kind of info being shared.
Customs people take care of customs not the cruise lines.
A lot of credit to Japan, which did not expect this nightmare and is now stuck with enormous medical and quarantine costs and logistical burdens. I am not surprised countries are turning away cruise ships from their ports.
Daily tallies, Hubei province only.
New deaths: 103 - record by a fair margin
Newly confirmed cases 2,097 - significant drop
This brings the total announced by the province’s health commission to 974 deaths and 31,728 confirmed cases. Officials in Hubei had reported 91 fatalities and 2,618 newly confirmed cases a day earlier.
RCCL just amended the policy and released more information about banning all China etc. passport holders. The cruise line was denying boarding for those passports because certain ports would have denied them docking privileges if anyone onboard held one of those passports. Now that policies have become more defined they have changed their policy.
The few cruises I have been on both had customs agents/passport control at the ports. Presumably they could alert the ship if someone didn’t disclose.
I’m sure it is hard for cruise lines but other travel industry businesses are taking a huge hit as well.
Related:
"About a month ago, mainland China was the world’s third largest aviation market—flying the most passengers in and out of the country—behind only the US and the UK.
Then, in a global effort to contain the coronavirus, governments around the world began refusing flights from China. The number of weekly scheduled seats fell by 1.4 million in a matter of weeks. Now air traffic in and out of the virus-plagued market ranks 16th in the world, behind Canada, the Netherlands, and Singapore.
Flights to and from China accounted for about 5.2% of all international capacity a month ago. That fell to 1.8% this week."
There are graphs in the story showing how other countries’ air travel has been impacted: