COVID hits first cruise ship to return to Caribbean since pandemic shut down industry

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The first cruise ship to return to the Caribbean since the coronavirus pandemic shut down the industry was forced to return to its home port of Barbados after passengers tested positive for COVID-19, said Thursday the shipowner, SeaDream Yacht Club.

Why is this important: Cruise ships were the sites of some of the most serious coronavirus outbreaks at the start of the pandemic, before the industry suspended operations in March.

What they say: “SeaDream I halted its current Caribbean trip and returned to Barbados after customer testing for Covid-19 returned suspected positive results, ”the Norwegian company said in a statement.

  • All passengers were tested twice before boarding and were retested, the company added.
  • The company did not say how many people tested positive, but said all guests and non-essential crew members quarantine themselves in their cabins with “great caution.”
  • The New York Times reported on Friday that at least seven of the ship’s 53 passengers have tested positive.
  • Andreas Brynestad, of SeaDream, said the company “is working closely with local health and government authorities to resolve this situation in the best possible way.”
  • He added that after “having completed a successful summer season in Norway, we have implemented even stricter health and safety protocols for our winter season in Barbados.”
  • According to the company, she took 21 cruises during the summer season from Norway.

The big picture: Cruise ships cautiously resumed sailing in Europe in August, according to WSJ.

  • Some ships that did not require testing were forced to shorten their voyages due to suspected cases of COVID-19 among passengers or crew, WSJ wrote.
  • At the end of October, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention replaced their “no sail” order on American cruises with a less restrictive “conditional navigation order”, paving the way for the gradual resumption of cruise passenger travel .
  • It will likely be months before cruises to the United States resume with passengers on board.

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