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I was under the assumption that the passengers were quarantined in their private quarters onboard.

Yes, but recent evidence indicates that the cruise ships are not safe for quarantine. It’s like they were all in the same cesspool, just waiting to get infected.

In theory, cruise ships should be pretty well suited for such purposes; industry experience with outbreaks (mostly norovirus I believe), private restroom in every cabin, probably top-notch central filtration on the AC, no more than two people in most cabins ... I wonder how the virus managed to spread so widely in such a short time under such conditions.

staff not quaranteed. Food carried down corridors without any covering from the air. Only ht food was covered with aluminium foil.

My understanding is that the crew was still preparing the food. With the outbreak, it's inevitable that one of the kitchen staff would catch it, and then everything coming out of that kitchen is contaminated.

Even worse than that: https://thehill.com/changing-america/well-being/prevention-c...

An excerpt:

Iwata said he saw people eating lunch with their medical gloves on, and handling their smartphones while wearing protective suits, “so it was completely chaotic."

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