Alaska’s first cruise ship of the year returned to port early after a passenger tested COVID-positive, according to written statements issued late Tuesday, August 4, by the City and Borough of Juneau and the ship’s operator, UnCruise Adventures.
UnCruise Adventures said that a passenger aboard the Wilderness Adventurer ship had received the positive test result on Tuesday, 3 days after the vessel had departed Alaska’s capital city. Wilderness Adventurer had not stopped in any other ports in Southeast Alaska.
According to the company, the tourist had arrived in Alaska with a negative test result and had then taken another at Juneau International Airport as part of the statewide program. Wilderness Adventurer left Juneau port on Saturday, August 1, with 30 crew members and 36 passengers onboard and the infected traveler received the test results aboard the ship.
UnCruise said in its statement the guest was showing no symptoms and no other guests or crew were showing outward symptoms of any kind. All passengers had been informed and would quarantine until the state of Alaska deemed it safe for them to return home.
Galloway said that passengers would quarantine at a local hotel while they worked with local and state officials "on the next steps with testing and contact tracing.”
The ship’s crew members will quarantine aboard Wilderness Adventurer, which will remain docked in the port of Juneau.
4 other planned voyages have been canceled.
For more Wilderness Adventurer accidents and incidents see the ship's CruiseMinus page.