Cruise with only 200 passengers has CV outbreak

[DisneYE]

It's an "expedition" cruise (whatever that means) out of Norway with 200 passengers and only reports 2 CM's infected but still..
It shows how difficult it is for cruise companies to adjust to this reality.
Imagine what a ship that tries to sail with 2,000+ passengers will look like in terms of potential infections.
A nightmare.
More and more it looks like no cruises will ever sail safely until at least a vaccine is available.
Sad news for us cruise lovers.

https://www.cruiselawnews.com/2020/...ections-confirmed-on-hurtigruten-cruise-ship/

 

[sethschroeder]

Just means its going on an expedition instead of going to a specific port or such. It just through the Artic or what not.

 

[vegs1]

It's an "expedition" cruise (whatever that means) out of Norway with 200 passengers and only reports 2 CM's infected but still..
It shows how difficult it is for cruise companies to adjust to this reality.
Imagine what a ship that tries to sail with 2,000+ passengers will look like in terms of potential infections.
A nightmare.
More and more it looks like no cruises will ever sail safely until at least a vaccine is available.
Sad news for us cruise lovers.

https://www.cruiselawnews.com/2020/...ections-confirmed-on-hurtigruten-cruise-ship/

Hurtigruten actually updated the number of sick to 4.

 

[Starwind]

Official statements from the affected cruise line:

News release page: https://presse.hurtigruten.no/latest_news

July 31: Four Hurtigruten employees test positive for COVID-19
https://presse.hurtigruten.no/press...-employees-test-positive-for-covid-19-3024187(Norwegian version has more details, use Google to translate: https://presse.hurtigruten.no/press...-ansatte-testet-positivt-for-covid-19-3024133 )

Aug 1: 33 Hurtigruten crew members tested positive for COVID-19
https://presse.hurtigruten.no/press...-members-tested-positive-for-covid-19-3024215
From Aug 1 English statement:
Four crew members were confirmed positive Friday. Extensive testing of the entire crew has concluded that additional 29 crew members are confirmed as COVID-19 positive. 120 of the crew have tested negative, while five will be retested before their final test results are verified.

None of the 154 crew members still on board the ship – including the 29 new confirmed positive tests Saturday – has shown any signs of disease or symptoms of COVID-19.

From Google translation of July 31 Norwegian language statement:

The four crew members were isolated several days ago due to another illness, without symptoms of COVID-19. When the ship arrived in Tromsø on Friday night, however, everyone was routinely tested.

- Our routines ensure that crew members are quarantined in the event of signs of illness, regardless of symptoms. There was no reason to suspect COVID-19 when the ship docked in Tromsø based on the symptoms the four of the crew had. Fortunately, we received a quick response to the tests, so that both we and Tromsø municipality were able to implement measures, says communications manager Rune Thomas Ege in Hurtigruten. The four crew members are now admitted to the University Hospital in Northern Norway (UNN).

There were 177 guests on board the Svalbard cruise that ended in Tromsø on Friday morning. None of the guests reported any symptoms of covid-19 along the way.

As part of the infection tracking, Hurtigruten has been made aware that a guest from the previous sailing after returning home has tested positive for COVID-19. This is included in the further work with infection tracing. All guests who were on board the sailings that started on 17 and 24 July are now followed up with information from Hurtigruten and the authorities.

 

[MichelleCanada]

We have two cruises booked for next year - one in July and one in August. I am already not feeling very confident about either one.

 

[gotomu212]

Wow 33 is over 20% of the crew.

 

[vegs1]

I was trying to find information on whether passengers were tested at all before they let them all disembark? Has anyone seen information on that?

 

[AquaDame]

I was trying to find information on whether passengers were tested at all before they let them all disembark? Has anyone seen information on that?

The article I read said they contacted the passengers for that cruise and the one before it so.. no.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/trav...-33-crew-infected-covid-19-norway/5562151002/

 

[Starwind]

I was trying to find information on whether passengers were tested at all before they let them all disembark? Has anyone seen information on that?

No they did not. They didn't know any of the crew had Covid until the passengers had already disembarked.

From the 31 July Noregian language statement by the company [google translation]:

The four crew members were isolated several days ago due to another illness, without symptoms of COVID-19. When the ship arrived in Tromsø on Friday night, however, everyone was routinely tested.

- Our routines ensure that crew members are quarantined in the event of signs of illness, regardless of symptoms. There was no reason to suspect COVID-19 when the ship docked in Tromsø based on the symptoms the four of the crew had. Fortunately, we received a quick response to the tests, so that both we and Tromsø municipality were able to implement measures, says communications manager Rune Thomas Ege in Hurtigruten. The four crew members are now admitted to the University Hospital in Northern Norway (UNN).

They go on to explain that the rest of the crew was then quarantined and would be tested [those tests are now done and more came back positive, all asymptomatic].

Then they describe what they learned from contact tracing with passengers:

There were 177 guests on board the Svalbard cruise that ended in Tromsø on Friday morning. None of the guests reported any symptoms of covid-19 along the way.

As part of the infection tracking, Hurtigruten has been made aware that a guest from the previous sailing after returning home has tested positive for COVID-19. This is included in the further work with infection tracing. All guests who were on board the sailings that started on 17 and 24 July are now followed up with information from Hurtigruten and the authorities.

- Together with the National Institute of Public Health, Tromsø municipality and local health authorities, we are now working to follow up and take care of both guests and our employees who have been on board the last two trips, says Ege.

- All guests must be in self-isolation in accordance with the national guidelines, and will also be tested for symptoms of COVID-19. Hurtigruten works closely with Tromsø Municipality, the National Institute of Public Health (NIPH), UNN and other national and local authorities to follow up the crew and guests on board, says Ege.

The ship is now insulated. The 160 crew members on board have been quarantined and will all be tested.

So it sounds like the passengers are in self-isolation and will be tested now.

 

[T & R]

Wow 33 is over 20% of the crew.

That's about right. Even the Diamond Princess which originally had no pandemic plan in place only had a positive test rate of a little less than 20%. Doctors cannot explain it but for some reason most people that are exposed just don't get sick. It's about 20%. That's why the myth that is used to ban cruising of 3000 sick people showing up at port just doesn't make sense. I would fear an outbreak more at a school or university than I would a cruise ship.

 

[DisneYE]

We have two cruises booked for next year - one in July and one in August. I am already not feeling very confident about either one.

Same...Two in July as well.
I think December-March is key.. if no vaccine is out there by March, chances are slim to none Summer sailings will take place.. One thing is for sure: no cruises will happen in 2020. At least not DCL.

 

[Intr3pid]

The 'speculation' is that the virus got on board through one of the passengers in the last voyage.

Look, it's an iterative process. You learn from this outbreak what went wrong and fix it. That's the only way to get it right long term. Unless you try something, you won't know where you are vulnerable. The key is to contact-trace and isolate things immediately like you would on land. And smaller ships give you a better chance to experiment before scaling up.

By the way, Hurtigruten has been running their ships since June, so they have had a rather OK run so far.

 

[Starwind]

And now there are report Paul Gauguin Cruises has one case aboard its cruise ship:

https://www.cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/23323-paul-gauguin-has-a-covid-19-case.html
https://la1ere.francetvinfo.fr/poly...e-paquebot-croisiere-paul-gauguin-858438.html
Presumably this is the 10-night Society Islands & Tuamotus voyage departing July 29, 2020, from Papeete, Tahiti sailing: https://www.pgcruises.com/travel-advisory

The normal ship capacities are [unknown what they are running at now]:
Guest Capacity: 332
Crew: 217

 

[DisneYE]

And now there are report Paul Gauguin Cruises has one case aboard its cruise ship:

https://www.cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/23323-paul-gauguin-has-a-covid-19-case.html
https://la1ere.francetvinfo.fr/poly...e-paquebot-croisiere-paul-gauguin-858438.html
Presumably this is the 10-night Society Islands & Tuamotus voyage departing July 29, 2020, from Papeete, Tahiti sailing: https://www.pgcruises.com/travel-advisory

The normal ship capacities are [unknown what they are running at now]:
Guest Capacity: 332
Crew: 217

Wow TY so much for posting this.
Aside from the unfortunate story that you linked,
I had no idea there was a cruise ship named (and semi-themed) after Paul Gauguin.
I've always been intrigued by his life (and some of his artwork) ... there's a great book about him by Nobel prize laureate Vargas Llosa, in the unlikely case anyone is interested.
I spent almost an hour on the cruise's website & now I want to go on this ship as soon as it's possible.
I've bookmarked this on my "cruises" file. Amazing.

 

[Starwind]

The Hurtigruten ship is now upto 40 infected: 36 crew and 4 passengers across the two sailings.

They have also released the nationalities of the infected crewmembers.

 

[DisneYE]

The Hurtigruten ship is now upto 40 infected: 36 crew and 4 passengers across the two sailings.

They have also released the nationalities of the infected crewmembers.

Wow... honestly, sailing during this pandemic is a turning out to be a HUGE mistake.
Cancel this experiment, its not worth it. Focus on crushing the virus.
Every country should do a New Zealand-like approach. Close all the borders, apply drastic measures, crush it.
I love cruising and traveling and I'm devastated I can't do either, but there's an emergency out there that needs to be dealt with.
Same goes for sports. See what is happening with MLB games & Covid infections.
These experiments aren't working.

 

[bbel]

I'm not defending them, but the two ships here are much smaller/expedition ships so even with a reduced capacity social distancing is hard.
One of the Mein Schiff ships is on its 4th (I think) sailing now, and so far no problems, let's hope it stays that way!

I've read some comments (on other sites) saying that "law suits will be coming", but honestly, unless you've been living in a cave everyone knows the risks of going anywhere where there are gatherings of people at the moment. If people chose to travel, let alone cruise in the middle of a world wide pandemic then that's the risk they're going to take.

 

[AgentMama]

Another cruise ship, the Paul Gauguin, is also having an outbreak. Based in the South Pacific.