BERLIN (AP) – A German cruise ship is cautiously testing the water amid the coronavirus pandemic, setting sail for the first time since the industry closed months ago and taking strict precautions to keep passengers and crew as safe as possible .
The TUI cruise ship “Mein Schiff 2”, literally “My Ship 2”, set sail for a weekend cruise in the North Sea on Friday night, the dpa news agency reported.
Occupancy was limited to 60% so that passengers could maintain the distance between them, but that level was not even reached. The ship set sail with 1,200 passengers on board compared to its normal capacity of 2,900. It was not reported how many crew members were also on board.
The ship set sail from the northern port of Hamburg for Norway, and passengers will spend the weekend at sea with no shore stops before returning to Germany on Monday.
On board, passengers and crew must remain 1.5 meters (5 feet) from each other or wear protective masks and may not be served at the ship’s buffet. All passengers also had to complete a health questionnaire before boarding and taking their temperature.
After shutting down for months, German cruise companies hope that shorter, tightly controlled trips will help restart the business that has been ravaged by the pandemic, which halted global travel, forced cruise companies to suspend operations and left stranded thousands of passengers and crew around the world.
Starting August 5, cruise ship operator AIDA will set sail from Hamburg with its first voyage since the pandemic closed operations months ago, with a second to depart August 12 from Rostock and a third departing August 16 from Kiel, reported dpa.
Germany has been widely praised for its efforts to contain its coronavirus outbreak. It has reported more than 206,000 infections, but kept the deaths at 9,124, just a fifth of the death toll in Britain. Germany is now in the process of reopening its economy, with strict guidelines on social distancing, wearing masks and personal hygiene measures.
Last week, US health officials extended the cruise ban until the end of September as coronavirus infections increase in most US states, including Florida, a departure site. popular for Caribbean cruises. The head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Robert Redfield, said in order that the cruise industry has not yet controlled transmission of the virus on its ships.
Dozens of coronavirus outbreaks have affected cruise ships, including the much-publicized Diamond Princess cruise outbreak in Japan that saw 712 infections and 13 deaths.
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