Coronavirus: Why did 542 people fall ill during the Diamond Princess quarantine?
Scientists believe the disease is mostly spread by droplets when people cough or sneeze, but Dr MacDermott says"there could also be another mode of transmission".What the air filtration on board the ship is like, how the cabins are connected, and how waste products were disposed could help explain what happened.
For a fortnight, passengers were told to stay in their cabins and avoid contact with others. Those without a window were allowed to walk on deck for an hour each day provided they wore a face mask and kept their distance. "It's difficult to enforce a quarantine in a ship environment and I'm absolutely sure there were some passengers who think they're not going to let anyone tell them what they can and cannot do," he explained.Dr Hunter acknowledged that quarantining 3,700 people in such a confined space is logistically challenging to say the least - adding that infection control procedures may have been more effective if the isolation had taken place on land.
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