Quarantine Measures for Coronavirus Disease 2019 on a Cruise Ship, Taiwan, February 2020

Lin, Yung-Ching; Chen, Meng-Yu; Liu, Ming-Ching; Lin, Yu-Ju; Lin, Yu-Hsuan; Kuo, Jiun-Shian; Wang, Pi-Sheng; Shih, Chung-Liang

To early detect and prevent coronavirus disease 2019 from spreading via international cruise ships, Taiwan Central Epidemic Command Center implemented on-board quarantine measures on a cruise ship at Port of Keelung, Taiwan, on February 8, 2020. Quarantine officers, medical professionals and administrative staff of competent authorities conducted fever screening, investigated present illness and travel history of 1,738 passengers and 776 crew members on the ship. Throat swabs were collected from 128 (5.1%) passengers and crew members with fever or respiratory symptoms in the past 14 days or travel history to China, Hong Kong or Macao within 30 days. All swabs tested negative for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 by the national reference laboratory. The whole process, from on-board preparation to completion of testing, took 9 hours. All passengers and crew were permitted to disembark and were required to take mandatory 14-day self-health management measures. No cases were reported by the end of self-health management period.