We're not assuming someone's health regarding the cough. They actually know who the 80 yr old coughing passenger is who boarded on Jan 20th with active symptomatic Covid and he had contracted Covid while in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, China on 10 January, then returned to Hong Kong and flew to Tokyo on 17 January to board the ship. He developed a cough on 19 January, but he went onboard the Diamond Princess anyways on Jan 20th because like I said in my previous post they had no outbreak controls until bodies started dropping including this guy who had to be carried off the ship for medical emergency on Jan 25th.
Perhaps the gentleman was a covid-denier just like we see today. They think they don't have it, that it is not serious, not that contagious and that if it's their time to die, it is what it is.
He was not med evac'd from the ship. In fact he did not visit a hospital until 5 days after he disembarked.
@Snowwhyt is correct that norovirus protocol was implemented after the ship was notified of the diagnosis on Feb.1. They QT'd passengers on Feb. 5 and began testing. Passengers were disembarked beginning Feb. 19.
The virus was very new (Japan's first case was confirmed on Jan. 16 in a 30 year old man.) and even being downplayed in most of the world. Why would that first cruise ship think they had to take any extra precautions other than what was usually done for a virus? Did they make mistakes in hindsight, yes, but we all learn in that instance.
The biggest mistake wasn't made by the Diamond Princess, IMO, it was Japan's. Those passengers should have been disembarked ASAP. They didn't want what potentially could be thousands of infected passengers in their city. The exact same situation we will find today if cruising starts too early.
My question to everyone that wants to start cruising ASAP, is what can the cruise line do today that would prevent coronavirus from spreading during your vacation? We don't have a vaccine and may never have. We only have a cleaning protocol. We only have masks, which a lot of cruisers say they will not wear. We appear to have some better treatments, but cruise ships would have to do some remodeling and decrease their number of passengers, thereby increasing the cruise fare to have enough space to QT. But if too many people get sick or some passengers get sicker than can be accommodated onboard, what is the answer? Just as
@TestingH2O posted, if you can't find a port that will let you disembark, whether for fun or for the hospital, cruising is not possible, at least for Americans until we can get the virus under control because there will be few countries that want us.
There are a few cruises sailing today with a limited number of passengers. MSC has sailed with 70% occupancy, in the Mediterranean. You must be swab tested and then wait 60-90 minutes to get the result back. They have staggered embarkation times to facilitate this process. There will be social distancing, with about 50% occupancy in some public venues. Cruisers will wear a digital contact tracing wristband. There will be no self-service food stations but at a buffet, staff will prepare your plate. At specialty restaurants they will use QR codes to access a digital menu. They have upgraded HVAC systems and will us UV-C irradiation. They are cleaning, wearing masks and controlling shore excursions.
Carnival Cruise Lines, Costa brand just had a cruise leave Monday visiting Italian ports. Their information lists some of the same protocols as MSC, but they did provide that crew will have been tested and quarantined for 14 days and then will be re-tested every 30 days. They will have repeat performances at shows to accommodate smaller audiences. They are only having seated restaurants.
These may be the cruises of the future, but I'm not sure they are ones I can/want to pay for.
(We had Alaska cruise tour for June 2020 
