More than 120 passengers and crew members on a Princess Cruises ship that docked in San Francisco on Thursday were infected with a stomach virus while on their voyage, federal health officials said.
The Ruby Princess was on a 20-day round trip journey from San Francisco to Canada and Alaska when 102 passengers and 23 crew members were stricken by norovirus, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
Norovirus is highly contagious, often spread by food or on surfaces, particularly in crowded conditions. It is a short-lived illness for many people, but can be dangerous for people with underlying health conditions, young children and those aged 65 and older.
If you ignore all the sinkings of ro-ro ferries…
They got life boats, and I can still tread water for hours, I’m not particularly concerned.
Well the safety has gotten better since 80’s and 90’s. sadly exactly due to the sinkings. More compartmentalising, stricter automatic safety measures and alerts. For example actually mandating on bridge “hey captain, your barn is open” alerts and so on. Mostly getting rid of the dangerous upward opening visors, which own buoyancy is constantly pulling it open.
Well there is still the overcrowded small ferries issue. Which is down to old worn out ferries badly maintained and overloaded. nothing one can do about that. One can sink any ship by exceeding carrying capacity and not maintaining the things that should be watertight, watertight.