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The cruise ship “Mein Schiff 6” with several corona-infected people on board docked in the Greek port city of Piraeus early Tuesday morning. Experts from the health authority (Eody) immediately came on board, according to state television (ERT). All travelers and crew members must take a coronavirus test. On Tuesday morning, employees of the Greek authorities carried out a third on-site test on the crew members now isolated and, according to TUI, free of symptoms. They were all negative.
922 vacationers
The first rapid tests came back negative, state television reported. The 922 vacationers and 666 crew members would have to remain on board until further notice.
Should illnesses be discovered on the ship despite extensive preparatory testing, it would be a setback for the cruise business of the world’s largest tour group, which has been cautiously starting over for a few weeks.
quarantine
TUI currently offers several one-week cruises in the North and Baltic Seas and one in the Mediterranean from Heraklion in Greece. According to a spokesperson, the team must have tested negative two weeks before departure and then went into quarantine for 14 days. A second test is then performed, which must also be negative before personnel can be deployed. The authorities in the destination countries then randomly retest the workforce. In one of those tests of 150 crew members, a dozen positive tests appeared. Guests must submit a negative test, which in Germany has to be done no more than 48 hours before departure.
Many regular customers
TUI Cruises boss Wybcke Meier told the “Tagesspiegel” newspaper at the weekend that despite the corona pandemic, there had been a constant interest from regular customers and cruise fans in boat trips. . At the moment, the goal is not to achieve previous profitability, but to demonstrate that travel is possible under Corona’s hygiene and safety precautions. “We are coming from 100 percent utilization, then we don’t even drive locked up and we want to use about 25 percent of our capacities in the last quarter of this year,” he added.
