Singapore will continue to accept cruise ships despite higher risk of spread

Singapore will continue to accept ships that are based here, including cruise ships, said the Health Ministry's director of medical services Kenneth Mak yesterday.

He added that Singapore has had ships coming into and leaving the country since the Covid-19 outbreak began in January, just as planes have not stopped taking passengers in and out of the country.

"What's important is recognising the risk that infections may occur on ships and they can spread very easily," said Associate Professor Mak.

"What's important is that as we receive some of these ships back in Singapore, we have a high degree of vigilance to make sure that none of (the passengers) are infected, and if they are, then we must be vigilant in making sure that we're able to identify them, isolate them and control any further spread."

Prof Mak was responding to questions from The Straits Times' senior health correspondent Salma Khalik on whether Singapore should stop cruise ships from docking here as other countries have done.

Ms Khalik also asked during yesterday's panel discussion, which was broadcast on the newspaper's social media channels, if cruise ships pose a greater danger of infection compared to planes.

Prof Mak said ships and planes are similar in that passengers cannot leave halfway through a journey, but he added that the dynamics of social interaction are very different between the two.

"If you're on a plane, you're spending most of your time... in your seat," he said. "You may get out of that seat and walk down the aisle, but most of the time you're going to the toilet and back to your seat."

The interactions one has with fellow passengers on a plane is therefore very limited, Prof Mak said. Any spread that takes place would occur in the vicinity of the seat.

He said: "Conventionally, we talk about investigating and looking at people who might be seated in the same row as you are if you're sick, two rows in front and two rows behind you."

In contrast, most interactions on a cruise ship occur during social activities such as meals, Prof Mak noted. Ship passengers also interact with one another much more than plane passengers.

The possibility of a virus spreading is therefore potentially much higher in a ship, Prof Mak said.

Ms Khalik also asked the panel if it is safe to travel during the upcoming March and June school holidays.

Panellist Tikki Pangestu, a visiting professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy and former director of the World Health Organisation's Research Policy and Cooperation department, said it is fine to travel to countries that have not seen much local transmission.

"I think it depends on your threshold of risk taking. Even within countries (with more cases), there are higher-risk areas. In Italy, it is the northern part of the country, and in South Korea, it's mostly Daegu, not the whole country," he said.

"So I think you just have to make, let's say, a judgment based on your own individual risk levels."

Associate Professor Hsu Li Yang of the National University of Singapore's Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health said cutting back on non-essential travel and paying attention to which countries are seeing a rise in cases suggesting community spread is going to be the "new normal" for a while.

He added: "The next question is, should tourists come to Singapore? And the answer, we think, is yes, because we think we've got a handle on the situation."

Professor Leo Yee Sin, executive director of the National Centre for Infectious Diseases, said: "We also have to watch out in terms of introduction and importation.

"But, personally, I think that Singapore is the safest place."