Crew on first post-lockdown Greek cruise contract coronavirus
What was meant to be the first in a new post-lockdown era of cruises around the Greek isles has fallen victim to the reality of travel in the coronavirus age after crew members tested positive for the virus.
Within hours of the Mein Schiff 6 departing from the Cretan port of Heraklion on Sunday night, the perils of holidaying on a cruise ship during a pandemic became apparent.
“Early on Monday we received positive test results for 12 crew members from an external laboratory,” said the Anglo-German travel company Tui. “As a precautionary measure and in accordance with the strict procedures for resuming cruise operations agreed with authorities in Greece, the persons concerned were immediately isolated on board.”
The results emerged after 150 random tests were conducted on the ship’s 666-strong personnel. All of the infected staff were described as asymptomatic. Subjected to further Covid-19 tests on the ship later in the day, six were given the all-clear.
The Maltese-flagged ship had been en route to Corfu via Piraeus. As soon as the diagnoses came in, its captain halted the voyage and moored the vessel off the Aegean isle of Milos until authorities in Athens instructed him to make straight for the capital’s port city.
Greek media said all 922 of the ship’s passengers would be confined to their cabins for the duration of the journey.
However Tui, operating the luxury liner in conjunction with the US firm Royal Caribbean, denied that passengers were constricted in their movements. Sabine Lueke, a spokeswoman for Tui, said: “They can use the ship in the normal way. The cruise will go on as planned.”
A team of public health experts is expected to visit the liner when it arrives in Piraeus on Tuesday, but officials indicated no one would be allowed to disembark.
Passengers who had undergone tests before boarding the liner had received a clean bill of health.
The cruise ship was the first to return to Greek waters after lockdown measures were imposed in March, with the inauguration of the industry being greeted with fanfare in the tourist reliant country.
In a world dominated by the deadly shadow of the highly contagious virus, it offered a shimmer of light.
“Cruises are still feasible, even amid the coronavirus pandemic,” Wybke Meier, the chief executive of Tui Cruises, had said.
Greece was the first Mediterranean country in which Tui had resumed cruises. The unfolding drama has ensured that questions will be asked in a country that initially had been a rare success story in handling the pandemic before experience a surge in infection rates over the summer.