Crew members with Covid on two ships

[CruisersTimesThree]

Hope all have full recoveries!

https://www.cruiselawnews.com/2020/07/articles/disease/covid-19-crew-member-infections-confirmed-on-hurtigruten-cruise-ship/

[cruise47]

This is not good news for the cruise industry. Are the cruise passengers going to tested for COVID-19.

That is going to be the big question ?

[BigAl94]

This update is worth translating - it doesn't make good reading https://www.vg.no/nyheter/innenriks/i/2GLwVR/hurtigruten-ble-varslet-om-passasjer-med-smitte-etter-forrige-tur-mente-det-ikke-var-grunn-til-bekymring?fbclid=IwAR1SllxGjIqkHEaI2GacFEL_2nlBchI5lF9B7vFmZmiePb3feKsO-00Q748

[hcat]

50 minutes ago, cruise47 said:

This is not good news for the cruise industry. Are the cruise passengers going to tested for COVID-19.

That is going to be the big question ?

 

Will they be able to trace all of them quickly...on ships involved and going forward will "rapid" testing be required before passengers and crew are allowed to board..?

[BigAl94]

11 minutes ago, hcat said:

 

Will they be able to trace all of them quickly...on ships involved and going forward will "rapid" testing be required before passengers and crew are allowed to board..?

 

and disembark?

[BigAl94]

Latest update is that 33 crew members tested positive https://www.folkebladet.no/nyheter/2020/08/01/33-Hurtigruten-ansatte-testet-positivt-for-covid-19-22395796.ece?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter&fbclid=IwAR0lgdaiqDwohgb1col27jqJgsxAU3R00C-IgGRNcxA50n5ws8c2jjuduOs

Edited August 1, 2020 by BigAl94

[NMTraveller]

The Hurtigruten ship is very very small.  Multiply the problem by 20x 30x as many people.  This does not bode well for US cruises starting up.  

[PTC DAWG]

Any symptoms?  More and more, people are asymptomatic.....

 

 

[C-Dragons]

9 minutes ago, PTC DAWG said:

Any symptoms?  More and more, people are asymptomatic.....

 

 

Therein lies the rub...

Edited August 1, 2020 by C-Dragons

[TeeRick]

This a continued reminder that the virus can be almost anywhere.  People will continue to test positive and there will be outbreaks even in countries that have done a great job to date.  Outside of vaccine-acquired herd immunity in the future, this will continue to happen here and there.  In this instance I hope everybody will be OK and recover.  But it does put a bullseye back on cruising.  So to resume cruising we need well developed procedures on ships with full buy-in and agreement from ports and countries on how to handle the occasional cases all the way to full outbreaks.   It is not just masks and social distancing.   There needs to be some actual acknowledgement that positive cases are to be expected and most will be just that - positive cases.  And there will need to be a plan on ship and in port for positive cases vs. the subset of those with COVID symptoms that need medical treatment.   Or even evacuation if necessary.  

[C-Dragons]

37 minutes ago, TeeRick said:

This a continued reminder that the virus can be almost anywhere.  People will continue to test positive and there will be outbreaks even in countries that have done a great job to date.  Outside of vaccine-acquired herd immunity in the future, this will continue to happen here and there.  In this instance I hope everybody will be OK and recover.  But it does put a bullseye back on cruising.  So to resume cruising we need well developed procedures on ships with full buy-in and agreement from ports and countries on how to handle the occasional cases all the way to full outbreaks.   It is not just masks and social distancing.   There needs to be some actual acknowledgement that positive cases are to be expected and most will be just that - positive cases.  And there will need to be a plan on ship and in port for positive cases vs. the subset of those with COVID symptoms that need medical treatment.   Or even evacuation if necessary.  

Agreed. But it is a fascinating study of the “Tale of two cruises”. TUI versus Hurtigruten. One with no Covid cases and the other with many.

Edited August 1, 2020 by C-Dragons

[WNcruiser]

If they can't control COVID spreading just between the crew, how on earth can they do it with passengers? Ugh...my hopes of cruising not only in 2020 but early 2021 are fading quickly. 

[Oceangoer2]

I understand 'crew' contracted the virus, but where?  Allowed off the ship in which port, etc?  Has someone translated?  Can't read the story and the gist is probably important to many of us considering future sailings.

[durberville]

Yikes! They knew they had positive cases among the crew and they let the passengers off in port to roam around freely?! Am I reading that correctly?! I suspect this will be a major setback for the resumption of cruising....ports will certainly think twice about reopening to cruise ships. 😳

[NMTraveller]

18 minutes ago, oceangoer2 said:

I understand 'crew' contracted the virus, but where?  Allowed off the ship in which port, etc?  Has someone translated?  Can't read the story and the gist is probably important to many of us considering future sailings.

 

Most likely would be a passenger as they are not tested prior to boarding.

 

 

Edited August 1, 2020 by NMTraveller

[WNcruiser]

33 minutes ago, oceangoer2 said:

I understand 'crew' contracted the virus, but where?  Allowed off the ship in which port, etc?  Has someone translated?  Can't read the story and the gist is probably important to many of us considering future sailings.

Try this:

 

https://www.yahoo.com/news/33-crew-infected-hurtigruten-ship-160855564.html

[bEwAbG]

Are these cruise lines letting the crew spread out, too?  Or still stacking them like firewood in tiny rooms with shared bathrooms? 

[ECCruise]

2 hours ago, PTC DAWG said:

Any symptoms?  More and more, people are asymptomatic.....

 

 

I am not sure how that is germane. 

Asymptomatic can infect others.

Presymptomatic can infect others.

 

The cruise industry, I am afraid, is in even more trouble than we have thought.  There were extensive preparations for these first sailings and look what happened.

[ECCruise]

1 minute ago, Dwight1 said:

Based on all the protocols they did and traveler selection I can’t see the US CDC allowing cruises now until mid to late 2021. The winter and probably more is toast.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

I think I agree.  We've already had 6 sailings either cancelled or Lifted and Shifted.  Now there are 2 more on the bubble, late January in Asia and an April crossing and May Italy intensive on Azamara.

Had some hope for April and May but that is rapidly being dashed.

[Baron Barracuda]

Alright, they had several sick crew.  Didn't know for sure it was covid but must have suspected, yet still allowed passengers to disembark without testing and return home.  Begs the question what should they have done?  Should they have locked down ship, quarantining passengers and crew for several days while testing everyone?  If so, would this be the procedure every time someone displays cold / flu symptoms?  Maybe so, but doubt cruises could operate under this scenario.

[hcat]

7 hours ago, BigAl94 said:

 

and disembark?

Absolutely!

[ECCruise]

14 minutes ago, Baron Barracuda said:

Alright, they had several sick crew.  Didn't know for sure it was covid but must have suspected, yet still allowed passengers to disembark without testing and return home.  Begs the question what should they have done?  Should they have locked down ship, quarantining passengers and crew for several days while testing everyone?  If so, would this be the procedure every time someone displays cold / flu symptoms?  Maybe so, but doubt cruises could operate under this scenario.

Option 3:  Not sailed.

[Baron Barracuda]

Just read in another thread 33 crew and 1 passenger have now tested positive.

[SeaHunt]

2 hours ago, C-Dragons said:

Agreed. But it is a fascinating study of the “Tale of two cruises”. TUI versus Hurtigruten. One with no Covid cases and the other with many.

 

Luckily for TUI - looks like some cases were caught prior to cruising on Mein Schiff 1 (good news):

 

 

Google translation

5 crew members who are scheduled to restart Mein Schiff 1 were tested positive for the corona virus in advance. According to the new process at TUI Cruises, the employees were not allowed on board to prevent the virus from spreading.

 

https://www.kreuzfahrt-aktuelles.de/news/tui-cruises-5-crewmitglieder-fuer-die-mein-schiff-1-wurden-positiv-auf-das-coronavirus-getestet/7710/

 

"Five crew members for the restart of Mein Schiff 1 were tested positive for the corona virus in advance

We already reported that Mein Schiff 1's first Blue Voyage, which took place in the period 31.07. was planned until 03.08.2020, was canceled because there were not enough crew members available.

 

In this context, it has now become known that 5 crew members who were to be deployed on Mein Schiff 1 tested positive for the corona virus. As part of a new on-boarding process that was developed due to the corona pandemic, every employee is tested in advance and may only board the ship if the test is negative.

This shows that the newly created process works and there is therefore no danger that a majority of employees on the ship will be infected and that the trips would have to be canceled".

 

TUI Cruises statement:

We had to cancel the first trip from / to Kiel because we were unable to fill certain positions on the start team of Mein Schiff 1 in good time due to global travel restrictions.

 

To restart the ships, the crew is recruited according to strict processes in accordance with the health and safety concept that has been adapted to the situation of the corona pandemic: All new crew members are tested before they board the ship. Only crew members with a negative COVID-19 test go on board and remain in isolation for 14 days without contact to the crew already on board before starting their service.

 

As part of this on-boarding process, five crew members of Mein Schiff 1 tested positive for COVID-19 and are currently in a facility on land rented by TUI Cruises. This proves that the processes introduced are working. The responsible authorities are fully informed and involved.

......

The direct German competitor AIDA Cruises has also established a similar process and there, too, 10 crew members needed for the restart were tested positive for the corona virus. 

[npcl]

2 hours ago, C-Dragons said:

Agreed. But it is a fascinating study of the “Tale of two cruises”. TUI versus Hurtigruten. One with no Covid cases and the other with many.

If you look at the incidence rate in Germany one would expect that you would have 1 infected person per 10,000.  That means that TUI should be able to do at least that 8 to 10 cruises with 1200 passengers before it encounters even one infected person.

 

 

 

Norway also has a low rate, one were you would expect 4 per 10,000.  So the odds were that the Hurtigruten should have been able to do many sailings of Norwegian residents without encountering an infected individual.  The fact that they got hit this quickly and the infection spread as much as it did, is not a good sign.  It continues to show that get 1 person on a cruise ship and you  get an  attack rate that is very high. In the case of the Hurtigruten cruise apparently a passenger from the previous cruise has developed symptoms and has tested positive.