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Cruise Covid Outbreaks on ships cruising now tell us plenty about the virus and cruise ships now. There have been 2 new Covid outbreaks / issues on cruise ships sailing right now in Europe. However, they received almost no coverage and were ignored by cruise critics and haters. Why? I explore what these cruise Covid outbreaks were and why they have blown the objections and beliefs of cruise critics out of the water. And why these are very important and significant for cruise passengers, like you and me, and regulatory authorities around the world.
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0:00
covert outbreaks on cruise ships are
0:02
usually massive
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front-page news however two coveted
0:06
incidents on large cruise ships in
0:08
europe
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have in the past weeks largely been
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ignored
0:12
i'm gary bembridge and i'm going to look
0:14
at what happened
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why you likely didn't hear about them
0:17
and most important of all
0:19
why i think both of these have really
0:21
big implications for cruising
0:23
and for us as cruise passengers first
0:26
off what are the two incidents well in
0:27
february
0:28
the tui cruisers and royal caribbean
0:30
joint venture mine shift on their mind
0:32
shift 2
0:32
which had 1 000 passengers and 800 crew
0:35
on board
0:36
they discovered some covered positive
0:38
passengers
0:39
on one of their canary island cruises
0:42
four guests actually tested positive for
0:44
covert 19 and
0:45
nine guests and 11 crew members were
0:48
identified as persons who had come in
0:49
close contact
0:50
with those passengers through their
0:52
contact tracing process
0:54
on board so all passengers and all the
0:57
crew
0:57
were then tested and they're all found
0:59
to be negative before they were allowed
1:01
to finish their cruise and eventually
1:02
disembark
1:03
and return home to germany those
1:06
in close contact and those infected were
1:08
then isolated initially on the ship
1:10
and then they went into hotel quarantine
1:13
in the canary islands at mine
1:15
shifts expense to basically run through
1:17
that whole process
1:18
the second incident was not much later
1:21
on msc grandiosa
1:22
on one of their seven eye cruises out of
1:25
genoa
1:26
now a passenger on this ship tested
1:28
positive and
1:29
picked up in the regular processes and
1:31
screening on board the ship
1:33
while his wife eventually tested
1:35
negative again the close contacts of the
1:37
couple were identified using onboard
1:39
contact tracing which in the case of msc
1:41
includes
1:42
a wearable device use of cctv and face
1:45
recognition and regular swiping of
1:47
cruise cards
1:48
in our different venues so all of those
1:50
guests who were identified as being
1:51
close contacts were isolated
2:07
ones that the available line had
2:08
established and negotiated
2:10
deals with to have isolation and medical
2:12
arrangements and it was all done
2:14
as part of their return to sale planning
2:16
so based on
2:17
this protocol msc they made a short
2:19
technical call on the port of palermo
2:22
and they transferred the guest and his
2:23
wife to one of those facilities
2:26
and again everyone was tested negative
2:28
so the crews resumed
2:29
and the unaffected guests they basically
2:31
continued as normal they're all
2:33
tested as i said that they were negative
2:35
now these incidents both these incidents
2:37
and how they play out tells us a couple
2:40
of
2:40
really really important things with big
2:42
implications
2:43
as we look at cruising returning in the
2:45
united states in the uk
2:47
in spain australia and so on first
2:51
although coverage
2:52
may have been pretty much non-existent
2:54
in english-speaking media because there
2:56
were no u.s or uk guests
2:58
involved i do hope and i really do
2:59
believe that it
3:01
shows the start of media getting a much
3:04
better perspective and a
3:05
clearer understanding of what the cruise
3:07
industry actually now has in place
3:09
to minimize covert 19 coming on board
3:12
identifying it
3:13
if it does come on board and managing
3:16
the whole process without having to
3:18
lock down the entire cruise put all the
3:20
passengers in quarantining basically
3:22
lock down and isolate the ship
3:23
now in the context of what has and in
3:26
fact is still happening on land
3:27
it makes these two curved events on
3:30
ships and how they were managed look
3:32
so much more ordered so much more
3:33
controlled and extremely
3:35
thorough because in both cases there was
3:37
not a big dramatic story to tell which
3:40
of course is why it may also have been
3:42
ignored by the media because the story
3:43
here
3:44
is that the protocols spotted the issue
3:47
through onboard testing capability and
3:50
processes
3:51
contact tracing meant those at risk were
3:54
quickly identified
3:55
and quarantined those that were positive
3:57
entered very specific
3:58
cruise line funded facilities and the
4:01
cruisers able to continue
4:02
with everyone who's not affected not at
4:05
the dramatic saga
4:06
that media like when it comes to
4:07
cruising you could of course
4:09
argue secondly which is key to this
4:12
incident while testing can of course
4:14
minimize the risk of covet coming on
4:15
board
4:16
i think everyone accepts that it's
4:18
realistically going to be impossible
4:20
to stop curving coming onto ships as it
4:22
is to stop it coming into events or
4:24
premises on land so the key here is how
4:28
it gets managed the protocols on mind
4:30
shift and msc cruisers
4:32
meant one they have testing of all
4:35
passengers
4:36
and all crew before the cruise before
4:39
boarding to minimize the risk of it
4:40
coming on board
4:42
two they are then able to identify
4:44
suspected infected guests who may
4:46
not have been picked up in that
4:48
pre-board testing for whatever reason
4:50
through the on-board ongoing constant
4:52
everyday screening
4:54
three they're then able to confirm the
4:57
issue
4:58
with onboard testing capability which is
4:59
right there now installed
5:01
on the ship four through active contact
5:05
tracing which as i mentioned
5:06
involves of technology and they know
5:09
exactly who the close contacts were
5:11
so they're able to focus and isolate
5:13
only on those people so in the case of
5:14
mine shift that was around 20 people
5:16
and it was actually much fewer for msc
5:18
grandiose they don't have to disrupt
5:20
and lock down everybody on the whole
5:22
ship fifthly they
5:24
can then remove the infected guests into
5:25
pre-agreed medical and isolation
5:27
facilities on land
5:28
so away from the ship and then sixth
5:30
they can use the process
5:32
again agreed with local health
5:33
authorities to test and make sure that
5:36
everyone else is clear
5:37
they can let the cruise continue and
5:38
finally of course for
5:40
travis to spa disembark as planned from
5:42
the trip and head
5:43
home it's a process covering all stages
5:47
now despite some well-documented
5:48
missteps by hutter gruten
5:51
and seadream the cruise industry has
5:53
from
5:54
many many sailings in summer
5:55
increasingly proven
5:57
real life tested and constantly
5:59
fine-tuned
6:00
these protocols and these processes to
6:02
minimize identify contain
6:05
and manage issues and outbreaks this
6:07
process
6:08
is in place not only for mine shift and
6:10
msc cruisers but other lines selling in
6:12
europe so you've got lines like
6:13
capacloid
6:14
costa cruisers and then you've got those
6:16
across in asia like royal caribbean
6:18
quantum of the seas
6:19
and dream cruises and those in japan and
6:21
so on it shows an
6:23
end-to-end process to identify contain
6:26
and
6:26
manage covert when cruising and also
6:29
guests seem
6:30
to be happy with them they understand
6:32
them and they appreciate
6:34
what it's doing to make this process
6:36
much more containable
6:38
so richard feyn chairman of the royal
6:39
caribbean group talking about the
6:41
singapore sailing specifically
6:43
and has now been extended to the middle
6:44
of the year he said i'm going to quote
6:46
it's quite important what he said guests
6:48
are sharing
6:49
very positive reviews and we're also
6:51
seeing a higher proportion of
6:53
first-time cruises than expected we
6:55
believe
6:56
that these cruises even before the
6:58
availability of vaccines
7:00
are helping us learn and demonstrate to
7:02
others how we can operate successfully
7:04
under the current
7:05
curved 19 environment for me one of the
7:08
key achievements of the protocols is
7:10
they have shown that
7:11
unlike early 2020 when the pandemic was
7:14
starting
7:14
cruise lines have now shown that the
7:16
virus does not sweep the whole way
7:18
through the ships
7:19
they're able to contain it pre-pandemic
7:22
that was just not possible
7:24
as an aside the protocols have been so
7:26
successful they're even discussing
7:28
with singaporean officials now
7:30
increasing our world capacity from 50
7:32
to 65 is there risk with these of course
7:37
as there is on land with places where
7:39
people come together and
7:40
interact however the protocols in place
7:43
are beyond what is happening and in
7:44
place on land
7:46
so it looks very promising as we look at
7:48
what can be achieved
7:49
and what we can expect when cruising is
7:51
able to resume globally
7:53
as these protocols have all formed the
7:55
basis of the proposal submitted all
7:58
around the world including the united
7:59
states
7:59
the uk and australia specifically now of
8:02
course some of the protocols like mark
8:04
wearing
8:04
controlled line and excursions limits on
8:07
numbers and venues
8:08
the ability to meet and die with
8:10
strangers these are not ones that
8:12
everybody is going to want to cruise
8:13
with
8:14
and so the group of people will want to
8:16
stay away but for those
8:17
of us who do want to cruise and are
8:19
willing to accept these
8:20
there does appear to be lots of hope
8:23
that we should be able to with
8:24
greater confidence than ever because
8:26
these protocols are pretty much been
8:28
road tested of course also the
8:30
accelerating rollout of vaccines
8:33
will no doubt be factored into all of
8:34
this too how exactly it's still
8:36
a matter of a debate it's still unclear
8:38
but it does seem possible
8:40
they are going to be included in some
8:41
way as i've covered in other
8:43
episodes so what do you think about my
8:46
thoughts on what these covet incidents
8:48
and the reaction to them mean for us as
8:51
cruisers i'd love to know what you think
8:53
if you found this interesting and
8:55
entertaining i have hundreds more
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episodes
8:57
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