Once I learn the information this morning {that a} COVID-19 outbreak involving round one-hundred passengers and crew members occurred on the Coral Princess, Princess’s sister ship to the Ruby Princess which had one of many earliest outbreaks of COVID-19 in Australia two years in the past, I felt as if I have been trapped in a scene in Groundhog Day. Within the film, comic Invoice Murray performs a weatherman who finds himself trapped within the small city of Puntxsutawny as he lives the identical day time and again.
.@PrincessCruises #COVID19 outbreak of about 100 crew members & @cruise passengers on Coral Princess much like sister ship Ruby Princess’ early main outbreaks of COVID-19 in Australia https://t.co/HgkYYb8gWB Are we caught in one other unhealthy day within the Groundhog Day film?
— James (Jim) Walker (@CruiseLaw) July 11, 2022
ABC Information – Australia studies {that a} COVID-19 outbreak on the Coral Princess concerned “round 100 passengers and crew members” because the Princess cruise ship arrived in Brisbane, Australia within the northeastern state of Queensland. Neither Princess Cruises nor father or mother firm Carnival Company acknowledged the precise or exact variety of contaminated visitors or crew however nonetheless launched a PR assertion claiming that the cruise line had been “open and clear” with visitors.
The federal government in Australia down-played the outbreak, saying that COVID-19 is all over the place and certain to occur on cruise ships. Inexplicably the Australian well being officers stated there have been no plans to mandate face masks, and stated it was as much as people whether or not to put on one or not. Regardless of this relaxed perspective, the Princess spokesperson claimed that the “well being and well-being of our visitors and crew stay our primary precedence” and that the cruise line was “doing every thing potential to make sure the security of visitors and crew within the face of the outbreak.” These are the standard cruise line claims and PR gobbledygook. In the identical spirit, the cruise line claimed it was was “adhering to complete protocols,” however there was no effort to even require masks or implement social distancing.
🛳 Coral Princess outbreak
QLD Well being Minister: “This was all the time going to occur identical to the remainder of group.”
QLD Well being spokesperson: “Cruising performs an important function in our state’s tourism trade and it’s important we proceed to adapt and study to stay with COVID-19.” 😐 https://t.co/UdJdNUDHgY
— Joe Friday (@justthefacts85) July 11, 2022
The federal government additionally claimed that “cruise ship crew and their passengers are topic to strict necessities to minimise the COVID-19 threat to Queenslanders.” However, once more, the visitors weren’t required to put on masks or socially distance.
Quite a few contaminated visitors disembarked in Brisbane, which as Australian newspaper WAtoday defined, is going through its highest degree of hospitalization in six months. 1000’s of employees are off sick or isolating attributable to coronavirus an infection which is inserting important strain on the state’s hospitals. These hospitals have already began to cancel elective procedures.
The Ruby Princess, a sister ship of the Coral Princess, was the location of an early main outbreak of COVID-19 in Australia when contaminated passengers have been allowed to disembark in Sydney in 2020. At the very least 900 passengers and crew later examined optimistic for COVID-19, and 28 folks died.
Crew members have been compelled to remain on the Princess ship because the virus unfold. Some Princess crew members died and/or ended their life ready repatriation dwelling.
Cruise Coronavirus Disaster: Crew Members on the Ruby Princess Plea for Assist
This yr, the Ruby Princess once more made the information when over 250 passengers have been contaminated with COVID-19 throughout cruises on the finish of March and mid-April.
Princess Cruises turned the poster-child of how a cruise line ought to to not deal with a COVID-19 outbreak primarily based on its mishandling of outbreaks on the Diamond Princess, Grand Princess and Ruby Princess.
Initially of the coronavirus outbreak on the Diamond Princess, I requested Princess Cruises whether or not the virus could possibly be unfold by way of airborne particles. In response to my inquiry in mid-February 2020 which I posted on Twitter (together with a photograph of Princess crew members huddled collectively in a hallway within the crew space), Princess Cruises denied that the virus might be transmitted by way of the air. It cited to the World Well being Group that the virus is allegedly “primarily” transmitted through droplets from shut individual to individual contact.
The World Well being Group believes the virus is principally unfold by droplets from shut person-to-person contact, corresponding to by coughing and sneezing. Shut contact means being inside six toes or two meters of an unwell individual for a chronic interval, with out sporting a face masks.
— Princess Cruises (@PrincessCruises) February 13, 2020
Cruising now with no masks requirement or strict social distancing by visitors to keep away from this airborne virus means that this Carnival Company model has not realized a lot for the reason that early days of the pandemic.
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July 11, 2022 Replace:
Proper? Watch HBOs ‘The Final Cruise’ about Diamond Princess in 2020 or learn ‘Cabin Fever’ in regards to the Zaandam. This was cruising simply 2 years in the past, but right here we’re once more. There’s no such factor as secure cruising in a pandemic. https://t.co/LmBlUuAaQi
— Truthful Crusing (@Fair_Sailing) July 12, 2022
Picture credit score: Roy Luck – Coral Princess CC BY 2.0, commons / wikimedia.
