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Plans for luxury cruises have quickly, and perhaps predictably, stalled in the Caribbean.
Cruise ship operator SeaDream Yacht Club this week canceled all voyages for the rest of the year after one of its ships, the first to resume navigation in the region amid the pandemic, was destroyed by an epidemic of COVID-19 last week.
So far, at least seven of the 53 passengers and two of the 66 crew members aboard the style yacht SeaDream I liners tested positive for the new coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2. The infected and those who tested negative have since landed.
The cruise, which boarded passengers in Barbados on November 7, would be a “watershed” journey for the cruise industry. SeaDream has sought to demonstrate that it can continue to operate amid a global health crisis, even as the pandemic currently rages in Europe and the United States at its greatest extent.
SeaDream set sail on the crusade without many of his colleagues. The commercial organization representing 95% of the industry, the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), had previously announced that it was extending a voluntary suspension of all cruises until the end of the year.
But SeaDream left, touting its extensive health protocols and precautions. The cruise line operator invited fewer guests on board, tried to keep physical distances, encouraged the use of masks, and modified off-ship excursions to prevent passengers from socializing with other people ashore.
“Not sufficient”
Passengers were also required to test the negative test for SARS-CoV-2 multiple times to try to create a COVID-free bubble at sea. Although passengers performed highly accurate RT-PCR laboratory tests prior to boarding, on-board tests appear to have relied on an Abbott rapid test, which is not intended to detect asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic infections. Experts have repeatedly raised questions about its use for general screenings, particularly in the wake of the White House outbreaks, which relied solely on Abbott’s tests to prevent the spread of the disease.
Four days later SeaDream I departing from Barbados, a passenger developed symptoms and tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. The ship immediately returned to the Caribbean island, with all passengers and non-essential crew quarantined. Eventually, SeaDream admitted that all its efforts to prevent the spread of the disease at sea “were not enough”.
Although the cruise operator once again noted that it made 21 trips to Norway in June with no apparent incident, it has decided to cancel the rest of its navigation plans for 2020. “The company will now take the time to evaluate and see if it is possible to operate and have a high degree of certainty of not getting COVID, “SeaDream wrote in a press release.
Rethink
The news may come as no surprise, as the pandemic was marked for the first time by devastating COVID-19 outbreaks aboard cruise ships. In particular this was the case with Diamond Princess, struck by an early outbreak and quarantined for weeks in a Japanese port in February. Eventually, 712 of the 3,711 passengers and crew members were infected, 37 required intensive care and nine died.
The proximity and social nature of cruise ships make them hotbeds of disease transmission, and experts have strongly advised the public against sailing while coronavirus transmission remains high. For these reasons, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was reportedly planning to extend a sail ban order for cruise ships until February 2021. However, the agency was canceled by the administration. Trump, who revoked the no-sail order on October 30. At the time of the decision, health officials suggested the move was made ahead of the presidential election to appease the cruise industry, which has an economic influence in the swinging state of Florida.
With passengers and crew of SeaDream I now off the ship and scattered, it may be difficult to tell if further cases will develop. Sue Bryant, who writes for Cruise Critic and was aboard the ill-fated liner, wrote in a post that crew members said some infected passengers did not go to an isolation center in Barbados as planned. A group of six people traveling together – which included the first person who fell ill and four others infected – “had returned home to the United States on a private jet, five of them tested positive.”
Passengers who tested negative were allowed to disembark and go to the airport to take the return flights to their home countries. Of the 53 passengers, 37 were American and others came from the UK, Austria, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Germany.
“I still wonder why we were allowed to leave Barbados instead of being quarantined,” Bryant wrote. “The official line was that all of us had submitted two negative tests, one approved by the government and were free to go. My opinion is that they wanted us to leave the island as soon as possible. “
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