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New Cruise Covid Outbreaks : What Went Wrong ? And What Next For Cruising ?
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Jan 28, 2025
Just as cruises started to resume around the world, cruising had a set back with a series of Covid-19 outbreaks on a number of ships like Hurtigruten Roald Amundsen, Ponant's Paul Gauguin and also among crew of Costa and AIDA lines. I explore what actually happened, what caused the outbreak and what mistakes and errors were made to make some of the cruising covid outbreaks more widespread than others. What we leant and what impact it is having on cruises and resumption of cruising. Join this channel to get access to perks: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_qE-Obs2ocdmPXY0TIU-cw/join Buying my Cruise T-shirts at http://bit.ly/TFTStore Gary Bembridge's Tips For Travellers aims to help you make more of your precious travel time and money on land and when cruising the oceans or rivers of the world. To help you, in every video I draw on my first-hand tips and advice from travelling every month for over 20 years and 77 cruises at time of making this video. Follow Tips For Travellers on: - Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/garybembridge - Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/tipsfortravellers - Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/garybembridge #CruiseCovidOutbreak #CruiseOutbreak #CruiseResumption 00:23 What Outbreaks Happened? 02:10 Hurtigruten Outbreak 02:42 3 Big Hurtigruten Errors 07:06 Paul Gauguin Outbreak and Errors
View Video Transcript
0:00
what really happened with the covet
0:02
outbreaks on the first to resume
0:04
cruises was it just that the cruise
0:06
lines were too quick
0:08
to chase money versus concerns around
0:10
public health
0:11
was it that the protocols had some fatal
0:14
flaws in them
0:14
or was it some clumsy mistakes around
0:17
implementing the protocols and what does
0:19
it mean for cruising
0:20
now and looking to the months ahead
0:23
first of all let's take a look at what
0:25
has actually happened as cruisers
0:27
have started up around the world there's
0:29
been a number of
0:30
key outbreaks the first of those and the
0:32
most noticeable
0:33
of all of those is on hurtigridden's
0:36
expedition ship
0:37
the ms ronald amundsen this cruise ship
0:40
has had an outbreak so far of 36
0:43
crew members 33 filipinos one german
0:46
one french and one norwegian so far
0:50
five of the passengers have tested
0:52
positive but
0:53
still testing is happening and that
0:55
number is expected to grow
0:57
the second big outbreak with a lot of
0:59
publicity has happened on panant-owned
1:01
poor
1:01
gargan ship where an american passenger
1:04
22 year old
1:05
woman was identified as positive on the
1:08
ship
1:08
all the rest of the crew and passengers
1:10
have tested negative
1:12
thirdly we've seen as cruise lines have
1:15
taken a crew back to
1:16
man their ships a number of positive
1:19
cases
1:19
arising so for example 10 crew members
1:22
returning
1:23
to aida in germany were found and tested
1:26
positive
1:27
for covert 19 and most recently in the
1:30
last couple of days
1:31
costa cruisers also talking about five
1:33
of their crew members being
1:34
tested as positive however there's been
1:37
no reports of incidents on some other
1:39
cruises that have started up so for
1:40
example urdu britain
1:42
with their norwegian coastal cruises
1:45
which head up and down calling it 34
1:47
ports along the coast
1:48
they have had no issues at all pennant
1:51
which sails out of france has had no
1:54
issues
1:55
we've also seen out of taiwan dream
1:56
cruises which are selling ships of
1:58
around 900 passengers
1:59
have had no issues and mine shift which
2:02
is sailing
2:03
these cruises to nowhere out of germany
2:06
have had
2:07
no reported incidents so what actually
2:09
has gone wrong
2:10
let's start by first of all taking a
2:11
look at the biggest of these which is
2:13
the hertigluten
2:14
ronald abbinson the ronald amundsen is
2:17
one of hutu griffin's expedition ships
2:19
it holds 530 passengers it set sail on a
2:23
series of cruises for norwegian
2:25
passengers
2:25
heading up to svalbard which is right up
2:28
in the arctic circle
2:29
the first cruise went on july the 17th
2:31
with 209 guests
2:33
and the second cruise the one which was
2:35
affected left
2:36
on the 24th of july from tromso and it
2:39
had
2:40
178 guests on board there was a number
2:43
of errors made
2:44
by huda gruten that led to the situation
2:47
where 36 crew testing positive
2:49
and as i said at the moment five
2:51
passengers what
2:52
went wrong what were the errors that
2:53
happened well first of all the
2:55
key error that they seem to have made is
2:57
around quarantining
2:58
the staff when crew came back to join
3:02
the ship they had to have a covert
3:03
nineteen test before they left their
3:05
home country
3:06
under the norway regulations once they
3:09
joined they had to go into quarantine
3:10
before having another test
3:12
huttergluten approach to quarantining
3:15
was not
3:15
as the health authorities had understood
3:18
it so the crew
3:19
were quarantined on the ship but they
3:20
were still fulfilling their normal
3:22
duties
3:23
who digriten took quarantine to me not
3:25
heading out onto land
3:26
so the crew weren't actually locked away
3:29
this is very different to what happened
3:30
with costa
3:31
and aida with their crew what they did
3:34
is
3:34
same thing the crew had a test before
3:36
they left their home country they then
3:37
went into a very strict quarantine on
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the ships
3:40
where they were basically combined to
3:42
their cabin before having the second
3:43
test it was the second test
3:45
that threw up the issues utigurten had a
3:47
different approach to quarantining which
3:49
was not really it appears within
3:51
the rules and regulations the second key
3:53
mistake they appeared to have
3:55
made which may have contributed to what
3:57
happened is one of the guests on that
3:59
first
4:00
cruise to svalbard when they went home
4:03
actually tested positive for covet 19.
4:06
however what happened next is the
4:08
subject of some confusion
4:09
because it was never announced that he
4:11
had actually been on the cruise because
4:13
hurtigretton
4:14
according to norwegian press reports had
4:16
argued there was no proof that he'd
4:18
caught it on the ship
4:19
so certainly in terms of notifying
4:21
people notifying passengers on the next
4:23
cruise that someone had tested positive
4:24
this doesn't appear to have been
4:26
followed through of course we don't know
4:28
this particular passenger was the cause
4:30
of what happened next
4:31
the third key mistake they made which
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seems quite a significant one
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is during the course of that second
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cruise four
4:38
of the crew members fell ill not showing
4:41
classic
4:42
covert 19 symptoms but certainly ill
4:44
enough that they were quarantined
4:46
however the norwegian authorities don't
4:48
seem to have been alerted
4:49
the passengers weren't alerted the
4:50
passengers weren't quarantined
4:52
once they got back to tromso the
4:55
passengers were allowed to disembark and
4:57
head off home those four crew members
4:59
were taken to the hospital
5:01
tested as i guess the standard practice
5:02
now for cover 19 or four tested positive
5:05
as a result of that
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all 158 crew were tested and 36 of them
5:10
were found to be positive
5:12
none of those 36 including the original
5:14
four showing any
5:15
of the classic signs of clover 19 as we
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know happens quite a lot they were kind
5:19
of showing
5:20
they were asymptomatic and not showing
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signs
5:23
by now the passengers had headed back to
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their homes in norway there was still a
5:27
group of those that were still in trump
5:28
so they were then quarantined in a hotel
5:30
testing had started at the time of
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recording only 24 of those have been
5:34
tested and five of those have been found
5:35
positive
5:36
what the norwegian authorities are
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saying is they believe that of course as
5:39
they track and trace the rest of the
5:41
passengers they will have more positive
5:43
cases so certainly as you can see a
5:45
number of key mistakes certainly around
5:47
notifying people but also very
5:49
importantly is when they had
5:50
crew members falling ill the there
5:53
wasn't a lockdown on the ship there was
5:54
an assumption made
5:56
that it could be curved 19 and people
5:58
still carried on their crews carrying on
5:59
the activities and were allowed to
6:00
disembark
6:01
some of the key issues related to the
6:03
protocol is two
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things that should be noted one of which
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is passengers
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joining the hotend cruisers did not have
6:10
to have any form of copyrighting tests
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either before
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or during and it doesn't appear to be
6:15
any testing facilities on board the ship
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so kruger tested for passengers weren't
6:20
and secondly one of the notable
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differences
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in the huda grueton protocols although
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they do have things like social
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distancing
6:27
no self-service dining and limits on the
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amount of people any
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venues at any point in time uh you know
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hand washing
6:36
they don't have masks as part of their
6:37
protocol unlike say costa cruisers
6:39
or crystal and some of the other cruise
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lines as they look to start up where
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mark wearing is a bigger part of the
6:46
protocols this wasn't
6:47
and doesn't seem to be the case on her
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degree so definitely as we look at huda
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grit and there does seem to be a number
6:52
of issues related
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to the way that protocols were
6:55
implemented which has now been admitted
6:57
and confirmed by the ceo of hotogriton
7:00
and certainly that does seem to be a
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fundamental part of the breakdown
7:04
is how the protocols were actually
7:05
implemented so let's take a look what
7:07
happened with paul
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again because this is a slightly
7:09
different situation where the protocols
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do seem to have been clicked into place
7:13
and have worked in this particular
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circumstance
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unlike hutu groton if you go on a paul
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gang cruz
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testing for passengers as well as crew
7:23
is part of the process so before you fly
7:25
into french polynesia
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you have to show proof of a negative
7:28
covert 19
7:30
test within the past 72 hours
7:33
once you enter the country you do have
7:35
to have a second test as part of the
7:38
whole protocol
7:38
so actually on board paul gargan because
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passengers have been there for
7:42
less than five days they had some of the
7:46
passengers being tested on board
7:47
this is where the passenger was
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identified a 22 year old american
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once she was tested positive immediately
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the ship went into lockdown
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so all the passengers had to go to their
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cabins
7:59
and everyone was isolated the ship
8:01
immediately turned around
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unlike her to go too much carried on
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with the cruise the ship immediately
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turned around
8:06
and headed back to papetti once it got
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there
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the infected passenger was removed
8:13
sent to the hospital tested everyone was
8:15
isolated everybody on board the ship was
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tested crew and passengers
8:19
everyone tested negative however the
8:21
passengers are now they're slowly being
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disembarked
8:23
held in some sort of quarantine for five
8:25
days and test it again so here you can
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see there was quite a strict sense of
8:28
protocol
8:29
and very fast reaction and notification
8:31
involvement of the authorities
8:33
so although there's been lots of press
8:34
about the poor gergan incident there was
8:36
one passenger who tested negative
8:37
when leaving the usa but as testing
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positive again
8:41
asymptomatic as i've already mentioned
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what we've seen with the other cruise
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lines that have been testing crew
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that whole process of pre-testing before
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they leave the country
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holding them quarantined into that
8:51
critical five days also and doing a
8:53
second test has picked up those issues
8:56
so what is the effect of these outbreaks
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on these first
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two return to cruising cruises there are
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three
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really big things that are happening and
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will happen
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as we look at cruising first of all the
9:08
resumption of cruising
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is going to slow down significantly the
9:12
brakes going to be put on and it is
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going to be extended we're already
9:14
seeing that so for example in norway
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they have an immediate ban for initially
9:18
a couple of weeks on all cruise ships
9:21
of over 100 passengers in their waters
9:24
secondly what we've seen is
9:25
italy which is where aida ships are
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actually flagged have refused
9:29
aida the permission to start sailing
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even though they were planning to sell
9:32
out of germany they
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are quoting sort of public health
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concerns so they haven't let
9:37
are you to start cruising unlike say
9:40
mine shift or hypergloid
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which aren't flagged in italy and have
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been allowed to start sailing in germany
9:45
so we've certainly seen some immediate
9:47
stops on cruising
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and i think we'll see more and more of
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those cancellations one of the areas to
9:52
watch is greece
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just in the last week or so that this
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all happened had given permission for
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cruises to start in greece and we'll be
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interested to see whether they
9:59
shift and change that advice that's
10:01
definitely one to watch
10:03
secondly we undoubtedly will see a
10:04
review of the protocols on
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in terms of what worked and what didn't
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work and particularly when we see what
10:10
worked for
10:11
paul gargan and didn't work for her to
10:13
britain all the cruise lines at the
10:15
moment have focused very much their
10:16
protocols on
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things that are likely to catch people
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with symptoms or to stop
10:21
the spread of symptoms so they have
10:23
things like temperature checking
10:24
lots of focus on sanitization social
10:26
distancing
10:28
controlling the number of people in
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venues
10:31
cruises nowhere or limited ports but
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what they haven't really built in is two
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fundamental things first of all
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how do they deal and capture
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asymptomatic passengers as you've seen
10:40
with pog again
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they have a process of testing with the
10:43
two tests
10:44
before you arrive after a number of days
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once you've arrived
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which of course doesn't happen for
10:48
cruises like the hotend or the mayan
10:50
shifts
10:50
so i think the whole asymptomatic
10:52
passenger protocol will be reviewed
10:54
and of course again i think the issue of
10:57
masks as we've seen on land the use of
10:59
masks has become
11:00
more and more part of the daily protocol
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and certainly cruise lines are starting
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to incorporate
11:04
the mask usage much more so i think
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we'll see much more around
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those two topics the third area that i
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think we'll see a huge amount of focus
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is the what went wrong with the
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hurtigratin issue which is
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the implementation of protocols when
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there is an outbreak as we saw although
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it wasn't great
11:20
for the poor gargan cruz passages who
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were then
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isolated and had their crews cut short
11:26
when one person
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was caught positive but there was a very
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clear
11:30
tight and very strict protocol which was
11:32
followed and put in place to minimize
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and reduce the impact so i think we're
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going to see an enormous amount of
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pressure on the
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actual protocols with an outbreak and
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certainly if you look at the cdc
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documentation and you look at their
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current
11:45
consultation paper that they have out
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there there is an enormous amount of
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emphasis they put on
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what happens if there is an outbreak and
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how do you minimize
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the strain on the public health system
11:55
and certainly one of the criticisms that
11:57
the norway
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health authorities have had is because
12:00
of the way that huda gurudev managed it
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where they let passengers
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head back out right across norway
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they've created an enormous problem in
12:06
terms of track and trace
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that's what actually happened with these
12:10
outbreaks there's been a lot of hype a
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lot of myths a lot of misinformation out
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there
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but as we can see there is a combination
12:16
of protocols
12:17
needing to be tightened up some of the
12:18
protocols perhaps not capturing
12:21
every issue secondly we've seen that
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the way that you implement and follow
12:26
protocols is really really fundamental
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to this whole process and that didn't
12:29
happen in every single case
12:31
and of course the third big question
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overall which i think is fundamental to
12:34
the extension of cruising
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is as we've seen on land the virus is
12:38
still pretty rampant it can flare up
12:40
really quickly
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we're seeing local lockdowns all around
12:43
the world concerns about a second wave
12:45
and actually the challenges of actually
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heading off on any kind of travel
12:49
with the virus and its current state
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looks very challenging which is why
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i do think this even these early cruises
12:54
have shown it's probably going to be
12:57
a time that the cruise lines and
12:59
authorities are going to have to extend
13:00
cruising much more what do you think
13:02
about the whole
13:03
learnings from this startup of cruising
13:06
leave your thoughts and comments love to
13:07
hear what you think
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