On January 21, cruise ship Costa Venezia left from Shekou port in Shenzhen City, south China's Guangdong Province. The news of the novel coronavirus pneumonia in Wuhan perhaps bothered passengers on board little as they enjoyed their vacation.

When boarding the ship, about one-third of the passengers wore masks, and some of them felt a sense of relief at being able to escape from the virus and hopefully, it would be all clear after they came back from the sea.

Things changed on January 23 after Wuhan shut down all public transport over the outbreak, and the cruise crew began to wear masks.

In the afternoon of January 25, the cruise broadcast that disembarkation may be delayed and all passengers might require quarantine after disembarkation.

In the early morning of January 26, some passengers heard on the grapevine that there were passengers from Wuhan on board. If a confirmed case of the coronavirus was found, all of them may have to be isolated at sea.

The cruise ship Costa Venezia returned to Shenzhen after a six-day cruise at sea. On arrival, a medical team boarded the ship, and all 4,973 passengers and 1,249 crew were checked by medics for symptoms of fever and pneumonia. 

Fortunately, all 13 who were found to have high temperature tested negative for the COVID-19 virus. But all 148 passengers who're residents of Wuhan or visited Wuhan recently, were isolated further for a stricter screening. 

Passengers and crew were granted permission to disembark in the evening of January 26. 

As of February 4, all have been removed from medical observation.

Costa is the first cruise company to announce the cancellation of all cruises ships during the Spring Festival holiday. Other cruise lines also later announced to suspend their trips to the Chinese mainland and offered full refund to passengers.

Despite the urgent measures taken by the cruise company, not all of them survived like Costa Venezia amid the coronavirus outbreak.

Cruise ship Diamond Princess has been quarantined off the coast of Yokohama, Japan, since February 3 after a passenger from Hong Kong tested positive for the coronavirus on January 25 after disembarking in Hong Kong. The cruise ship has the largest concentration of cases, about 23 percent of the respiratory virus outside the Chinese mainland.

Cruise ship World Dream with more than 3,600 passengers and crew was quarantined at the Kai Tak Cruise Terminal in Hong Kong on February 5. The ship left Hong Kong on a voyage to Taiwan, where it was turned away after revealing that it had carried passengers with confirmed coronavirus infection on a previous voyage.

The Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) announced various precautionary measures. All passengers who have traveled to, visited or transited through the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Macao within 14 days before embarkation will be denied entry into cruise ships. 

Princess Cruises, Holland America, Cunard Line, Dream Cruises, Royal Caribbean, Crystal Cruises, Norwegian Cruise Line, Oceania Cruises and Costa Cruises are some of the other cruise operators who have implemented similar measures. 

With a large number of people gathered in the same place, public health emergencies are difficult to prevent and control on a cruise. 

According to Shanghai International Cruise Economic Research Center, the direct loss of some cruise companies due to cancellation of trips is up to 700 million to one billion yuan, and the loss of small cruise companies is about 50 million yuan, while the related loss of other suppliers and enterprises supporting cruise companies and ports is estimated to be about one billion yuan.

Even after the end of the epidemic, the cruise ship industry may take a longer time to recover.

As of today, around 500 passengers from the Diamond Princess cruise ship that have tested negative for the coronavirus disembarked in Japan's Yokohama City. Hopefully, more good news will be heard and finally the sun will rise over the sea.