[ad_1]
The last guest from the TUI Cruises fleet landed on March 23. That was almost six weeks ago, and all other trips are canceled in mid-June. Her clients have long been at home, but hundreds of crew members are still awaiting the long-awaited journey home. “Due to travel restrictions, ports around the world were closed and crew departures were explicitly prohibited,” reports the Hamburg-based shipping company.
Almost there it was: about 3,000 of the fleet’s crew members had gathered at “Mein Schiff 3”, a large part of Cuxhaven would gradually go to home countries around the world. Designed for around 2,500 passengers and 1,000 crew members, the cruise ship has been moored at the Steubenhöft in Cuxhaven since Tuesday.
But then some employees felt bad, 15 went to the on-board hospital with “mild flu symptoms.” The Cuxhaven District Health Department and Port Medical Service ordered crown tests. The result was positive: the first case aboard the “Mein Schiff” fleet, as reported by TUI Cruises, a joint venture between the TUI travel group and Royal Caribbean Cruises.
The “Mein Schiff 3” was quarantined on Friday, and a smaller group of about 250 people who had had contact with the infected person were evaluated. The Cuxhaven district said Saturday that no other infected people had been found.
However, in coordination with the crisis team and the State Ministry of Social Affairs in Hannover, it was determined that all other crew members should also be examined as a precaution. In addition, a “tapping team” was incorporated. The results could be available from Monday night. In addition, experts to trace the infection chains of the Robert Koch Institute want to verify where the confirmed case of Corona on board comes from.
For Filipinos, traveling home is further delayed
After inconvenience, “Mein Schiff 3” can leave the port of Lower Saxony at the mouth of the Elbe at the earliest on Sunday night. Cuxhaven District Administrator Kai-Uwe Bielefeld (independent) announced that she would be sailing to the North Sea for a few days. TUI Cruises said this had “technical reasons” such as environmental regulations.
But later the 293 meter long ocean liner was due to return to a German port. District Administrator Bielefeld and Mayor Uwe Santjer (SPD) gave the go-ahead to the people on the ground: “There is still no danger to the population of the city and the Cuxhaven district.”
A TUI-Cruises spokeswoman reported that the positive crew member was now in the isolation room of the Helios Clinic in Cuxhaven. The patient was “fine” and “continued to have only mild symptoms.”
“The entire crew of all ships has been on board in isolation for more than four weeks,” he said. They had been medically examined before switching to “Mein Schiff 3” and had no symptoms for 14 days. Some of the crew had already left the ship before Thursday. They were “asked to immediately go to quarantine at home.”
In addition to the delay caused by the Corona case, the roughly 800 Filipinos among the waiting crew members have another problem: Their home country suspended air travel for a week from Sunday and blocked the country’s nine airports for international flights.
Philippine government-established quarantine centers in Manila are overcrowded, capacity limits are said to have been reached. All returnees have to go through a 14-day quarantine there. Millions of Filipinos work abroad, including on cruise ships, many have lost their jobs due to the crown pandemic and want to return home.
Fear of another case of “Princess Diamond”
Due to the tightness, special caution is required when catching crown on ships. However, partitioning measures are not without risk, depending on the progress of the infection. In February, for example, the “Diamond Princess” of the United States was quarantined in the port of the Japanese city of Yokohama. This was controversial and, according to critics, contributed to an avoidable number of people becoming infected.
A few days ago, other crew members were infected with the “Atlantic Coast” at a repair dock in Nagasaki. And in the United States, “Zaandam” was only allowed to dock late in the port of Fort Lauderdale in Florida: several passengers on the ship had previously tested positive for the coronavirus.
Shipping companies around the world are currently facing the problem of having to park their cruises somewhere during the crown crisis. Many ocean liners are in expensive holding positions in ports around the world, some are floating with minimal crew, for example in the Bahamas, Barbados or Florida.
TUI Cruises currently has the other six ships in the fleet off Tenerife, in the German bay and in the eastern Mediterranean, a spokeswoman says. About a hundred crew members are on board each.
