World Cruise Day 80/152 - Sea Day - How to COVID test 970 people daily in 700 easy steps...

Cruise day: 80/152

Ports days: 28
Sea days: 52
Countries: 13
Continents: 4
Ports: 20

It's another sea day.  Let's talk COVID.  We remain in great shape on this ship with no COVID on the ship.  How do we know?  Testing.  Saliva testing.  Every single day.  With passengers and crew, that amounts to 970 PCR COVID tests that have to be performed each and every day.  How and where does that happen?  Here.

Lab Supervisor, Skrollan (left) and Public Health Officer, Abdiel (right) showing off the public view of Viking's testing lab on deck 7, between Wintergarden and the Explorers' Bar

This was the only photo I was allowed to take as passengers are absolutely prohibited from entering the lab

I got to sit with Skrollan and Abdiel and get some information on how they handle all the COVID testing to ensure that we remain COVID-free and catch any potential infections before they become an issue throughout the ship.

COVID tests take about 4.5 hours start to finish. I know what you're thinking - 4.5 hours times 970 daily samples means that testing would take somewhere around six months to complete.  How can that be?  First of all, several steps are taken to complete each test and those steps overlap from sample to sample, so more than one thing is happening at a time.  Second, and more importantly, they figured out how to streamline the process.  Each test run holds 93 samples, so more than one sample is getting processed at a time.  And, they combine four individual saliva samples into a single test.  This means that each of the 93 positions in a test contains four combined samples, so a little math tells us that each 4.5-hour test run processes 372 samples.  So in the case of our 970 passengers and crew on board, three test runs get everyone tested.  Again, those tests overlap, so when test #1 moves to the second step of the process, test #2 can start, and so on.

OK - now, you're wondering how combining samples from four different people makes any sense whatsoever. Think about it this way.  If you take all our daily saliva samples and combined them all together and the whole batch tests negative, then we know everyone is negative.  That's not really practical because if the batch tests positive, you have no idea who was positive.  But, if you do smaller combined groups of four samples, then, if you get a positive, you only have four samples to restest to identify the positive patient. If the batch tests negative, you know those four people are good to go.

So that's how they get it all done, but what do they actually do?  It's a little complicated!  Imagine that! In short, they have a copy machine - a DNA/RNA Xerox machine, if you will.  They heat the samples and cause the cell walls in the sample to burst, gaining access to the RNA inside the cell walls. They bathe the samples with a variety of enzymes that include some magnetic particles that adhere to the potential suspect COVID RNA.  They use magnets to fish out the RNA, wash the RNA so it is pure, and then combine it with another mirror-image strand that the enzymes form to yield DNA that can be copied.  They add a fluorescent molecule that will glow.  More enzymes are added to mark the start and end of the specific segment of the RNA that they want to test.  More enzymes cut the strand, releasing the fluorescent tags that will begin to glow.  They copy this DNA/RNA and analyze how many copies need to be made to visualize the glow when illuminated with a specific wavelength of light.  Several machines automate parts of this process and produce graphs for each sample.  

As I mentioned, if they find a positive batch, then the four samples in that batch are retested individually and the medical team on the ship is notified.

The labs are operated by a company called Medicover.  The supervisor, Skrollan, and her three lab technicians are all Medicover employees.  Public Health Officer, Abdiel, is a Viking officer and is responsible for oversight.

The lab here on the Viking Star was installed in November 2020 and was the very first testing laboratory on any cruise ship.  Since then, Viking has installed labs on all Ocean vessels and has formed partnerships in ports for river voyages.  

Since these labs were retrofitted, you might wonder what was there before.  It turns out it was a bar storage area for Wintergarden.

One other thing to consider is that COVID testing is one type of test, but the technology is similar to other potential tests.  For example, they might start performing norovirus testing.  This doesn't necessarily mean spitting in a tube every day from here on.  Regularly sampling the gray water from the wastewater system could provide an early warning if an infection has arrived on the ship.  In that case, then individual testing could be done.  The bottom line is that having a dedicated testing lab on each Viking ship gives Viking a leg up in diagnostic testing and could help prevent outbreaks of any infectious disease once we're over this COVID hump. The idea of optional genetic testing for passengers, (think of 23andMe or Ancestry.com kind of testing), could also be within the realm of possibility.  Think about being able to book an ancestry cruise where you can discover your ancestral roots and then go there.  

The lab staff doesn't know anyone's name as the samples are all barcoded. Yes, your name and room number are on the bags, but the vials are immediately separated and the bags are trashed, so only the barcode remains on the vial and with 970 daily vials, there's no chance the lab can relate a vial to a person.  Only the medical team can tie a sample or patient number together with a passenger name to ensure privacy for all.  All the bags and vials are deemed biohazard waste and are destroyed in the ship's incinerator daily.

Finally, you have to applaud the four folks that work in that lab because they have to open 970 bags and then 970 little vials every single day.  

We had our usual sea day activities - bridge & trivia.  Our failures today:

• What does a cytologist study?
• Cells
• In what city would you find Tiergarten Park?
• Berlin
• Jardis is the first name of which book witch?
• White Witch of Narnia (Lion, Witch & the Wardrobe)

So once again, we were one correct question out of contention.

Lunch featured a build your own sandwich bar.  They had a nice selection of bread, meat, salad spreads (crab salad, egg salad, chicken salad), veggies, and more.  It was great playing Dagwood Bumstead and building the ultimate sandwich.  They would panini-press it as well for some grilled tastiness.  Sometimes, cruise food gets overwhelming, especially after nearly three months, so a good old-fashioned sandwich for lunch was a terrific idea.

This afternoon, we had the opportunity to tour the ship's laundry facility. 

Located forward on deck #b, two floors below the lowest guest deck, everything that is fabric and needs cleaning flows through this laundry facility.  From crew laundry to restaurant linens to bed linens and towels, it all gets cleaned here.  And, if you're lucky enough to reside in a penthouse junior suite or above, your laundry is handled here as well.

Staffed by a crew of ten with eight working days and two working nights, the laundry is a 24-hour operation.  Overnights are generally reserved for restaurant laundry, cleaning the evening meal linens for use the following day.  During the day, crew clothing, guest laundry, and room linens make up the bulk of the work.

It all starts here, at the massive washing machines.  These four monsters combine to handle a total of 20-25 90kg (198lb) loads every day - more on linen change days.

Washers #1 - #3 are for general laundry.  Washer #4 (and dryer #4) are reserved for laboratory, medical, and COVID isolation/quarantine laundry only. This is done so it is segregated from other laundry and subjected to higher sterilizing temperatures. These washers are the single largest daily consumer of fresh water on the ship.

There are four dryers to dry the loads as they come out from the washers.

The massive electric dryers

A load of microfiber cleaning cloths going for a hot tumble

Dryer #4, like washer #4 is for lab, medical, and COVID use only

There is one small washer/dryer pair that is used for smaller specialty loads or specific cleaning needs.

Here is the dedicated boiler that produces all the hot water for the laundry facility.

Linens need to be pressed and folded.  Can you imagine hand-folding the tons of sheets, napkins, table cloths, towels, and so on?  Neither can they.  This machine automates the process.

Workers are feeding a bed sheet into the automated pressing and folding machine

Rollers draw the sheet into the machine where it is pressed

It partially exits the other side before being drawn back in the folding mechanism

The neatly pressed and folded sheet comes out and up a conveyer where another worker stacks it for delivery to a room

Crew and guest laundry are handled separately and not intermingled.  They print labels with a Thermo-Tex washable label printer to label guest clothing.

There is no dry cleaner on the ship, but they do have a dedicated wet laundry process for dry clean only clothing.

Laundry technicians hand press guest and crew laundry that requires pressing.

Finally, for items that need wrinkles removed but aren't suitable for pressing, they have these steamer dummies.  A worker puts a top over the dummy and then turns it on.  

The dummy inflates, snugging the item.  Then, steam is pumped through the permeable fabric cover, pushing through the garment and releasing the wrinkles.  Nearly everyone that saw it wanted one for home use!

They have an array of cleaning chemicals that are used to whiten the variety of white linens used throughout the ship.  If something is too stained to be saved, it may find its way to the engine room to be used as a rag.

The laundry, like the kitchen, bridge, and galley are behind-the-scene operations that we as passengers take for granted.  That's because they all do their job so well, the process is invisible to us guests. It just happens and we reap the benefits.  Kudos to the laundry team for a job well done, every single day.

After a relaxing dinner, we attended a show by the new entertainer, Mel Mellis, a comedy magician.  His magic wasn't strong, but that wasn't the point of his act.  It was more comedy and interplay with the audience and the magic was a vehicle to get there, and it worked.  The audience was laughing and having a good time.  We enjoyed it.

Tomorrow starts the seven day port run, as I have mentioned.  We will begin in Kotor, Montenegro tomorrow morning with excursions at 8:30am and 11:30am.