Dancing the virus away: Ship's crew under quarantine come up with novel means to assure family, 538 Pinoys onboard Diamond Princess

Dancing the virus away: Ship's crew under quarantine come up with novel means to assure family
Jay Hilotin, February 15, 2020 https://gulfnews.com/world/dancing-the-virus-away-ships-crew-under-quara...

@humperlynne

— Mae Fantillo (@maejuliene18) February 14, 2020

Ship's crew dance to Justin Bieber hit so family, friends 'know that we were Ok'

How to do you kill boredom and the fear of viral contagion while under quarantine on a ship?

Dance.

That's what some crew members on Diamond Princess did. The Japanese cruise ship was quarantined after dozens of passengers were infected by Covid-19.

Why dance? It's a novel way to assure family members they’re OK.

A crew member working on the cruise ship has posted a now-trending video on Twitter, showing kitchen staff on board the floating hotel dancing to a Justin Bieber hit song "Yummy" in the midst of the global health scare.

“We all know that we were facing a crisis here in Diamond Princess due to NCoV but hey we still managed to smile, laugh and dance. For our Family and Friends to know that we were Ok here and We Will Stand Together As One until we finish the Quarantine.#Galley#TeamDiamondPrincess,” stated Mae Fantillo (@maejuliene18) in a post.

The vessel is carrying 3,711 people and is currently sitting in the port of Yokohama. Due to novel coronavirus (now Covid-19) infection, the ship has been quarantined by the Japanese authorities till February 19, 2020. At least 61 people — including a Filipino — on board have tested positive for the new coronavirus (Covid-19)

On February 12 (Wednesday) two Indian crew on board the cruise ship tested positive for coronavirus, according to the Indian embassy in Japan. One quarantine officer was also infected, Reuters reported.

There are total of 538 Filipinos are being quarantined on a Japanese cruise ship.

Tweeps reacted with words of encouragement for the high-spirited crew.

"This is probably the greatest story on customer service in the history of mankind," stated Satoshi Morikawa (@celestialmosh).

The video drew a thousand of retweets and a request for interview from Japan's Fuji TV network.