Tag Archives: Diamond Princess

Cruise industry defends record after a critical TV documentary

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Zaandam Ship Stats & Information- Holland America Line Zaandam ...

The cruise industry has defended its record in tackling the coronavirus crisis in the wake of a critical ITV documentary screened on Thursday.

The hour-long ‘Billion Pound Cruises: All at Sea’ focused on the plight of various Princess Cruises ships and Holland America Line vessel Zaandam which were caught up in the pandemic.

It highlighted the impact on passengers and crew and detailed the number of deaths involved.

The documentary featured passenger footage taken onboard Diamond Princess, which was thrust into the spotlight as the virus became a pandemic due to an outbreak on the ship as it was docked in Japan which led to guests and crew being quarantined.

However, global cruise industry body Clia said: “While the tragic reality of the pandemic has meant that its impact has been felt across all walks of life, Clia believes that the industry’s rapid response is one reason why the number of cases linked to ships was a small fraction of the global total.”

The association stressed that health and safety are “integral” to the cruise industry, which is currently at standstill across most of the world due to government restrictions.

A Clia spokesperson said: “No other form of travel provides such high transparency in public health reporting, or requires such stringent cleaning and hygiene protocols.

“Within 48 hours of the WHO [World Health Organisation]  announcing an international emergency, Clia ocean cruise lines introduced enhanced screening protocols worldwide, including health and travel history checks prior to the embarkation of every passenger and crew member.

“Upon the declaration by the WHO of a pandemic, Clia ocean cruise lines voluntarily suspended operations worldwide, making the cruise industry one of the first to do so.

“Some ships had to travel thousands of miles to return to port, and repatriation was complicated by international air travel and border restrictions; Clia cruise lines have also successfully repatriated many thousands of crew members, and have been working non-stop with governments and health authorities to secure the safe return of crew members to their homes.”

Nearly 150 Total Coronavirus Cases Confirmed on Cruise Ship in Japan

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An aerial view shows Italian cruise ship Costa Atlantica in Nagasaki, southern Japan April 21, 2020. Kyodo/via REUTERS

Nearly 150 cases of coronavirus infection have been confirmed among crew members of an Italian cruise ship docked in Japan after health authorities finished testing everyone on board, an official said on Saturday.

The Nagasaki prefecture official said 57 more crew had tested positive, bringing the total infections on board the Costa Atlantica to 148, roughly one-quarter of the vessel’s 623 crew members.

Authorities began testing after one crew member tested positive for the virus earlier this week. No passengers are on board the vessel, which has been docked in Nagasaki in southwestern Japan since February for repairs and maintenance after the pandemic prevented scheduled repairs in China.

The official told a news conference that the prefecture was discussing with the national government how to handle a large number of positive infections on the ship.

He added that there was no change in plans to send those testing negative to their home nations as soon as possible.

The infection cluster on board the vessel comes as hospitals are running out of beds in some parts of Japan, where the national tally of virus cases has risen above 13,000. Some 350 people have died. Nagasaki, excluding the ship figures, has seen a relatively low number of 17 infections and one death.

Of those infected on board the Costa Atlantica, only one crew member has been admitted to hospital, while others remain onboard, having shown slight or no symptoms.

Nagasaki authorities had quarantined the vessel on arrival and ordered its crew not to venture beyond the quay except for hospital visits.

But prefecture officials said earlier this week that some of the crew had departed without their knowledge, and sought detailed information on their movements.

The cruise ship infections follow a similar incident earlier this year when more than 700 passengers and crew tested positive for the virus on the Diamond Princess cruise liner docked in Yokohama. (Reporting by Naomi Tajitsu and Chris Gallagher; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Ros Russell)

Carnival Corp boss denies sector was slow to react to coronavirus

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Carnival Corp boss denies sector was slow to react to coronavirus

Carnival Corporation boss Arnold Donald has refuted suggestions the cruise industry was “slow” to react to the outbreak of coronavirus.

He argued that cruise is actually one of the best-placed sectors of travel to cope with anticipated stricter health and safety protocols in the future.

The chief executive of the nine-brand cruising giant said: “The cruise industry put a pause on the cruise before anybody else did. Before hotels or restaurants and other places of social gathering.

“Cruise ships are not the cause. Neither are they the reason for the spread.”

Commenting on the outbreak onboard Diamond Princess which was held in quarantine off Yokohama by Japanese authorities, Donald said: “This was an evolving situation. There was very little knowledge early on, in February and early March.

“But we did exactly what we were told to do. We co-operated fully with the Japanese Ministry of Health. They decided to hold the ship and put a quarantine in place, so we complied with that and at the same time, we tried to make it as comfortable as possible for our passengers and crew.”

And he added: “If you listen to our guests on Diamond or Grand Princess, you’ll hear lots of plaudits for our crew and our corporation. Our guests feel strongly that we did our best.”

Asked if he blamed authorities of the destinations and ports that wouldn’t allow ships with confirmed cased of Covid-19 to disembark passengers, Donald said: “I won’t sit and judge anybody at the moment. We all need to focus on helping.

“There were certain situations where we had ships with people on board that needed medical attention – not even Covid-19 related – that couldn’t get it in a timely manner they would have normally. That was unfortunate. There’s no question that happened and we tried to give assistance where we could. But I will not judge.”

Donald concluded: “So people say we were slow, but we were first [to suspend operations] – before all the other social gathering venues.”

And he added that cruise was well-placed for the future when stricter health and safety protocols are expected to be introduced across the travel industry.

“I don’t think there’s anything unique to this that particularly ascribable to cruise alone. In fact, in many ways, a cruise is better set up to handle this than society in general,” said Donald.

“We already do isolation, deep cleaning, hold medical records, do temperature scanning, use hand sanitizers and promote regular hand-washing. We also document a lot of passenger information. So we’re uniquely suited in some ways.

“Airport terminals? Not so much. Subways? Not so much. Hotels? Restaurants? Not so much,” he said.

But he added: “Covid-19 has its own epidemiology. Whatever the medical experts deem is necessary to deal with it in the future, we will cooperate and implement.”