SINGAPORE — The incident on Wednesday (Dec 9) where an 83-year-old cruise passenger tested positive for Covid-19 may have ended up being a false alarm, but it provided the cruise industry with a means to test their infectious disease containment protocols and see where they can do better, Trade and Industry Minister Chan Chun Sing said.

It also showed the “robustness of the system”, Mr Chan said on the sidelines of a visit to the National University of Singapore’s Alice Lee Centre for Nursing Studies on Thursday. He was there to present a job situation report for the healthcare sector. 

He explained that once a positive case — be it a real or false positive — is detected on board a ship, protocol mandates that the Government and the industry “immediately swings into action” to do subsequent tests, isolation and contact tracing of suspected cases and their close contacts. 

On Wednesday morning, the Singapore Tourism Board announced that a man tested positive for Covid-19 after he had diarrhoea and reported to the medical centre onboard Royal Caribbean International’s Quantum of the Seas cruise liner.

The ship was forced to return from its “cruise to nowhere” 24 hours ahead of schedule.

However, after he was taken to hospital, the man tested negative in two follow-up tests. He is scheduled for another test on Thursday to confirm his status. 

Mr Chan said on Thursday that in any test, there is always a “slight chance” for a false positive or negative, because different types of tests have varying degrees of sensitivity and specificity.

“Because of that, that's why we need a series of protocols to make sure that we minimise the risk to the lowest possible.”

Highlighting the safety protocols put in place by the cruise industry, he said that passengers are required to undergo a test before they board the ship and a second time while it is sailing. 

He added that industry players are also required to ensure that they have a contract-tracing technology in place, which includes the use of surveillance cameras to facilitate quicker tracing of affected passengers. 

“For us to minimise the risk to the lowest, we will need a combination of testing regimes, and the trace and track regime.”  

Mr Chan said that the incident is also a reminder that Singapore should never “let our guard down” and solely rely on one particular method of overcoming the spread of Covid-19.

“Even as the vaccine comes around and is made available, we must continue to have a rigorous testing and tracking regime to complement the other parts (of a system that prevents the spread of coronavirus),” he added.

Only then, can Singapore keep the risk of a Covid-19 outbreak from happening again to as low as possible, he said.