COVID-19 pandemic on cruise ships

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Early in 2020, in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, the disease spread to a number of cruise ships, with the nature of such ships – including crowded semi-enclosed areas, increased exposure to new environments, and limited medical resources – contributing to the heightened risk and rapid spread of the disease.[1]

The British-registered Diamond Princess was the first cruise ship to have a major outbreak on board, with the ship quarantined at Yokohama from 4 February 2020 for about a month. Of 3711 passengers and crew, around 700 people became infected and 9 people died.[2][3]

Governments and ports responded by preventing many cruise ships from docking and advising people to avoid travelling on cruise ships. Many cruise lines suspended their operations to mitigate the spread of the pandemic.

By June 2020, over 40 cruise ships had had confirmed positive cases of coronavirus on board. The last cruise ship with passengers aboard during the first wave of the pandemic, Artania, docked at its home port with its last eight passengers on 8 June 2020.[a][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][excessive citations] In addition, over 40,000 crew members still remained on cruise ships, some in isolation, in mid-June 2020.[12] Many could not be repatriated because cruise lines refused to cover the cost,[13][14] and because countries had different and changing rules. The condition was stressful to many of those stranded;[15] multiple suicides were reported.[16]

Domestic UK cruises, confined to ports of call in the British Isles, began to resume in May 2021.[17] United States cruises restarted in June 2021.[18]

  1. ^ Tardivel, Kara; White, Stefanie B.; Duong, Krista Kornylo (24 June 2019). "Cruise Ship Travel – Chapter 8 – 2020 Yellow Book | Travelers' Health | CDC". C.cdc.gov. Retrieved 12 April 2020.
  2. ^ "How Dangerous is Covid-19?". August 2020.
  3. ^ "Cruise ship accounts for more than half of virus cases outside China – as it happened". The Guardian. 20 February 2020. Archived from the original on 4 March 2020. Retrieved 5 April 2020.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference final.cnn was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ McCormick, Erin; Greenfield, Patrick; Goñi, Uki (9 April 2020). "Revealed: 6,000 passengers on cruise ships despite coronavirus crisis | World news". The Guardian. Retrieved 12 April 2020.
  6. ^ Impelli, Matthew (3 April 2020). "Eight Cruise Ships Still Carrying Passengers At Sea As Coronavirus Cases Grow Around The World". Newsweek. Retrieved 12 April 2020.
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference artania.cbs was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference deliziosa.gazzettino was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference artania.phoenix was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ "Artania: Die letzten acht Kreuzfahrtschiff-Passagiere sind zurück in der Heimat". Cruisetricks.de Kreuzfahrt-Ratgeber. 8 June 2020. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
  11. ^ "Morten Hansen bringt die letzten 8 Kreuzfahrtgäste nach Hause – MS Artania in Bremerhaven". 8 June 2020. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
  12. ^ "At least 42,000 cruise ship workers are still trapped at sea: report". Fox News. 15 June 2020. Retrieved 15 June 2020.
  13. ^ McCormick, Erin; Greenfield, Patrick (30 April 2020). "Revealed: 100,000 crew never made it off cruise ships amid coronavirus crisis". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 7 May 2020.
  14. ^ "100,000 Crew Members Stranded on Cruise Ships as Cruise Lines Refuse to Agree to Pay for Repatriation Expenses". Cruise Law News. 30 April 2020. Archived from the original on 3 May 2020.
  15. ^ "Nightmare at Sea Ends In Death for Some Cruise Ship Workers". Yahoo! Finance. 12 May 2020. Archived from the original on 12 May 2020.
  16. ^ Yingst, Alexandra (20 May 2020). "'I Really Need to Go Home': The Cruise Ship Employees Still Stuck at Sea". Vice. Retrieved 21 May 2020.
  17. ^ "UK cruises 2021: Full list of summer cruise holidays this year plus…". World of Cruising. 25 May 2021. Retrieved 9 October 2021.
  18. ^ Stieg, Cory (28 August 2021). "Are cruises safe right now? Experts say they're 'a recipe for Covid transmission'". CNBC (in German). Retrieved 9 October 2021. cruises restarted in the United States in June.


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