YOKOHAMA, JAPAN — Thousands of travelers are stranded on cruise ships after coronavirus cases were discovered on board.
CNN reports that the World Dream cruise ship is quarantined at the port of Hong Kong, while the Diamond Princess is kept at bay in Yokohama by Japan.
According to Live Science, the confined spaces of a cruise ship provide almost the ideal environment for viruses that rely on person-to-person contact to thrive.
Coughing and sneezing, contaminated water and shared food onboard are all potential paths of infection." For instance, a trace amount of feces in the food or water can infect any passenger that dined in the buffet.
Some pathogens can linger on surfaces that an infected person touched and transmit to the next victim.
Not only that crews have limited time to sterilize the ship between cruises, but certain viruses including the norovirus can survive bleaching even by a 10 percent solution.