This Is a Daily Compilation of Media Articles Concerning the Covid-19 Impact on the International Cruise Industry
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1 THIS IS A DAILY COMPILATION OF MEDIA ARTICLES CONCERNING THE COVID-19 IMPACT ON THE INTERNATIONAL CRUISE INDUSTRY. Please note this isn’t a complete listing of media articles but a snapshot only. 16 March, 2020: TOP-LEVEL TALKS TO GET HUNDREDS OF BRITISH HOLIDAYMAKERS’ HOME FROM CORONAVIRUS-HIT CRUISE More than 650 holidaymakers from the UK are stuck on Fred Olsen Lines ship Braemar that is anchored in the Bahamas with guests and crew isolated. The Foreign Office is holding “high level discussions” to get more than 650 Britons home from a Covid-19-stricken cruise ship. The Braemar cruise ship took on more medical staff and stocked up on supplies on Sunday night after anchoring in the Bahamas. The vessel, containing 667 Britons, was forced to isolate 20 guests and 20 crew who showed influenza-like symptoms. They included five people who tested positive for Covid-19 at the boat’s last port of call on the island of Curacao, on March 10. On Monday, Fred Olsen Cruise Lines, which runs the Braemar, said two doctors and two nurses were drafted in to assist the on-board medical team. Read more… https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/world-news/top-level-talks-hundreds-british-17932060 https://www.itv.com/news/anglia/2020-03-15/five-test-positive-for-coronavirus-aboard-ipswich-cruise- liner/ https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/11175936/brits-stranded-on-caribbean-cruise-after-coronavirus/ https://metro.co.uk/2020/03/15/600-brits-stuck-virus-stricken-caribbean-cruise-ship-12399853/ 16 March, 2020: NEW OUTBREAKS, STRANDED PASSENGERS AND CONCERNED CREW MEMBERS: INDUSTRY STRUGGLES WITH SHUT-DOWN DUE TO CORONAVIRUS Crew members on the Costa Diadema indicate that the ship is sailing back to Savona from Dubai without passengers aboard. They are expressing alarm that Costa is taking the ship to Italy due to the high rate of infection in Italy. Crew members on this ship who are at the end of their contracts were not permitted to disembark while the ship was in Dubai. Meanwhile, there are crew members who have tested positive with coronavirus on the ship. Over one thousand crew members on the contaminated Grand Princess have still not been tested even though 19 of their colleagues on that ship are ill with COVID-19. There appears to be no plans by any cruise lines, even with ships which call on U.S. ports, to provide medical treatment ashore for their employees in order to comply with their maritime and legal obligations Crew members are uniformly expressing concern that their employers will refuse to pay them anything once they leave their ships and are returned home. Several MSC crew members explained that they are at the beginning of their contracts and the cruise line will not compensate them at all once they are sent home. Crew members from the Philippines have written an open letter to the president of their country asking for their mortgages, loans and other financial obligations be suspended so they can try to survive financially. Read more… https://www.cruiselawnews.com/2020/03/articles/disease/new-outbreaks-stranded-passengers-and- concerned-crew-members-industry-struggles-with-shut-down-due-to-coronavirus/ Document prepared by A.L. Skinner Consulting Inc https://gusskinnerconsulting.com subject to changes / amendments pg. 1 2 16 March, 2020: CORONAVIRUS COVID-19: CREW ON BOARD GRAND PRINCESS TO DISEMBARK Princess Cruises has announced that the crew on board the Grand Princess cruise ship will be allowed to disembark and will be repatriated using charter flights. The plan for repatriation was announced by the US Department of State, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the US Centers for disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the State of California, the City of Oakland, and the Port of San Francisco. Last week, Grand Princess docked in Port of Oakland in California, US, after staying off the coast for four days due to a number of passengers contracting Covid-19. The cruise line operator said that it will cover the cost of ground transportation and charter flights. Read more… https://www.ship-technology.com/news/coronavirus-covid-19-crew-grand-princess-disembark/ Grand Princess may finally leave Oakland on Monday: The Grand Princess, which has been moored at the Port of Oakland all week, will depart at around 8 a.m. Monday morning, according to the Oakland Police Department. The luxury cruise ship, which was marooned outside the Golden Gate for several days after tests revealed 21 cases on board of COVID-19, has had its passengers and most of the crew sent to quarantine in various locations including Travis Air Force Base in Solano County. It originally was to remain in Oakland only for three to five days; at his press conference today, Gov. Newsom had said it would set sail on Sunday evening. Read more… https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/amp/Coronavirus-live-updates-Bay-Area-California-cases- 15100710.php 15 March, 2020: THE ECONOMICS OF CRUISE SHIPS In the wake of coronavirus and tanking stocks, cruise companies have sought assistance from the US government. But for decades, the industry has done everything in its power to avoid paying into the system. Read more… https://thehustle.co/the-economics-of-cruise-ships/ 15 March, 2020: MORE THAN 600 BRITISH PASSENGERS ARE STRANDED ON CARIBBEAN CRUISE SHIP AND FACING A TEN-DAY NIGHTMARE TRIP HOME AS FIVE TEST POSITIVES FOR CORONAVIRUS AFTER OUTBREAK ONBOARD More than 600 British passengers – many of them elderly – were tonight stranded on a cruise ship in the Caribbean after it was blocked from a string of ports after a coronavirus outbreak onboard. Five people on the Braemar, operated by British cruise firm Fred Olsen, have already tested positive for Covid-19 and passengers – including the sick – now face the prospect of a voyage back across the Atlantic lasting up to ten days. The stricken ship, carrying 682 mostly British passengers and 381 crew, was refused permission to dock in Freetown in the Bahamas due to the outbreak. Instead, it was yesterday forced to anchor 25 miles off the northern coast of the Bahamas, where extra food, fuel and medical supplies were delivered by helicopter. Read more… https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8113015/More-600-British-passengers-stranded-virus-hit- Caribbean-cruise-ship.html Document prepared by A.L. Skinner Consulting Inc https://gusskinnerconsulting.com subject to changes / amendments pg. 2 3 15 March, 2020: NORWEGIAN CRUISE SHIP MS FRIDTJOF NANSEN WILL DOCK IN CORNWALL TODAY A huge Norwegian cruise ship is making its way to Cornwall - despite a number of trips being cancelled by other lines over the threat posed by coronavirus. The impressive MS Fridtjof Nansen belongs to cruise company Hurtigruten and is scheduled to dock in Fowey today, Sunday, at 1pm. The Fridtjof Nansen's trip to Cornwall is part of its showcase voyage, which gives guests the chance to be amongst the very first to sail on MS Fridtjof Nansen, prior even to her inaugural trip from Hamburg, commencing at the beginning of April. The trip will begin in Liverpool and head to Dublin and Cardiff before visiting Fowey on day four of the voyage. The ship will then head to Dartmouth and Portsmouth. Read more…. https://www.cornwalllive.com/whats-on/whats-on-news/norwegian-cruise-ship-ms-fridtjof-3949191 15 March, 2020: CORONAVIRUS: CRUISE SHIP PASSENGERS STRANDED AT SEA AS COUNTRIES TURN THEM AWAY FROM HARBOURS As countries across the world scramble to close their borders in response to the global Covid-19 pandemic, several cruise ships, some laden with thousands of passengers, are stranded on the high seas seeking a port at which they can dock. The Norwegian Jewel, sailing under the flag of the Bahamas, has been refused permission to dock in French Polynesia, Fiji, New Zealand and Australia, and is now piloting to American Samoa to refuel. But no passengers will be allowed off the ship in Pago Pago and it is unclear where passengers will ultimately be permitted to disembark. Read more…. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/16/cruise-ships-scramble-to-find-safe-harbour-amid- covid-19-crisis-as-countries-turn-them-away 15 March, 2020: CRUISE PASSENGERS UNDER CORONAVIRUS QUARANTINE SAY THEY LACK FOOD, BASIC MEDICAL ATTENTION Cruise ship passengers under federal coronavirus quarantine say they are lacking food, medical attention and are being housed in unsanitary conditions despite President Donald Trump's assertion that getting them off the Grand Princess was a "tremendous success." Read more… https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/investigations/2020/03/14/quarantined-cruise-passengers- lacking-basic-medical-care-even-soap/5051059002/ 15 March, 2020: THOUSANDS LEAVE MIAMI CRUISE SHIP WITHOUT SCREENINGS AFTER FORMER PASSENGER GOT COVID-19 Despite the positive test for COVID-19 from a passenger who had disembarked days earlier, thousands of people were allowed to leave a cruise ship in Miami on Sunday without undergoing medical screening. The former passenger got off the MSC Meraviglia in Miami on March 8 after an eight-day Caribbean cruise, leaving 103 passengers and the ship’s crew aboard for the next voyage. Four days later, after the ship had sailed with thousands of additional new passengers aboard, the Public Health Agency of Canada informed Broward-based MSC Cruises that the former passenger had tested positive. Once it received the result, the company said it isolated in individual cabins seven crew members who had been in close contact with the passenger. But instead of holding the ship off the Florida coast and testing people on board for COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, MSC said U.S.