Covid-19 infection on a liveaboard at the Maldives

[Oliver Ohlendorf]

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Dear fellow divers,

I would like to post the link to an eyeopening description of the ordeal of a group of divers after getting infected with Covid-19 on a liveaboard at the Maldives at the end of December 2020.
Kathrin Schuler from Switzerland was one of the divers who went through this experience and she was kind enough to share her "diary" with everyone to learn from what happened.

https://medium.com/@kathrinschuler/...the-maldives-is-nice-think-again-ccb9ebe0a5de

I personally think that despite Covid-19 being around for over a year by now many things went terribly wrong. The article could actually help others avoiding to get into a similar situtation or at least how to handle some aspects of it better prepared.

Kathrin also told me that someone from the group is writing about the events that (partly) led to all the 24 divers become infected. I will post a link here if I get any information about that.[/Mod]

 

[JustSurfaceInterval]

I am not surprise that you are not getting quarantined in a 5* De Luxe resort, but i did not expected it being that bad....
Thanks for sharing.

 

[Jackie Treehorn]

Not suprised at all. Elective/recreational travel during a global pandemic is fraught with risk.

You buy the ticket, you take the ride.

 

[Oliver Ohlendorf]

Not suprised at all. Elective/recreational travel during a global pandemic is fraught with risk.

You buy the ticket, you take the ride.

No comments to such a reply.

 

[Celt]

I have to say I have zero sympathy, not only were they willing to risk spreading COVID during a global pandemic but had not 2 of the divers required a negative COVID test they would all have got on planes and infected countless others.

 

[Oliver Ohlendorf]

I am not surprise that you are not getting quarantined in a 5* De Luxe resort, but i did not expected it being that bad....
Thanks for sharing.

Yeah I think nobody expects 5-star all inclusive, but a decent accommodation and acceptable food would be expected for 75 USD/day.

Especially since the Maldivian government is trying to re-start the tourism, so they should do their part by making sure tourists are handled appropriately...

 

[Oliver Ohlendorf]

I have to say I have zero sympathy, not only were they willing to risk spreading COVID during a global pandemic but had not 2 of the divers required a negative COVID test they would all have got on planes and infected countless others.

I have to say that this part of the story bugs me as well.
But aside from this fact the handling of the Covid infected tourists is still not acceptable. The government of the Maldives is trying hard to re-start their tourism. So they should be prepared to handle Covid cases accordingly.

 

[doctormike]

I have to say I have zero sympathy, not only were they willing to risk spreading COVID during a global pandemic but had not 2 of the divers required a negative COVID test they would all have got on planes and infected countless others.

I got this far:

"We knew the risks WE would be taking by traveling during a global pandemic." (emphasis mine).

This comes up again and again in these discussions. In scuba diving, we are always talking about risks in terms of the risks that we are willing to take on. But that has nothing to do with the decision to do extensive traveling during a pandemic, let alone this sort of travel where transmission risk is high.

It's not about the individual divers' risk or underlying health issues or whatever. It's about increasing the spread of the virus around the world. It's about more cases, which means more hospitalizations and more deaths of people that are never going to show up on a dive boat or scubaboard. Yeah, we don't know them or see them, but they still die, alone.

And one more concern - new strains. The virus has to replicate to mutate. So anything we can do to stop the spread now will reduce the rate of emergence of new strains.

Vaccines are coming. We are so close. Please. Save a life.

 

[doctormike]

But aside from this fact the handling of the Covid infected tourists is still not acceptable. The government of the Maldives is trying hard to re-start their tourism. So they should be prepared to handle Covid cases accordingly.

I agree.

 

[Celt]

I have to say that this part of the story bugs me as well. Especially because the positive result was not even such a surprise, since there was a lady showing symptoms as early as 4-5 days into the cruise.

I have got this extra info in a private chat with the author of the article.

But aside from this fact the handling of the Covid infected tourists is still not acceptable. The government of the Maldives is trying hard to re-start their tourism. So they should be prepared to handle Covid cases accordingly.

On the diary 13th January “The UK, where we live, announced that they will require a negative PCR test for arrivals from the 15th of January and we were planning to fly home on the 16th.”
If they left the UK around the 20th Dec they left during a major breakout of a new COVID variant, which has now spread to Ireland and overwhelmed our health system and killed hundreds of people.