Because of the contact tracing wrist bands, if a passenger tests positive, medical personnel can identify anyone with whom they were in contact. The Grandiosa is equipped with a medical center with molecular and antigen testing facilities, as well as a ventilator.Įxtra cabins are set aside to isolate suspected virus cases. "The important thing is we have never had an outbreak,'' she said. MSC spokeswoman Lucy Ellis said positive virus cases have cropped up on board MSC ships, particularly during the fall surge. Two Royal Caribbean cruise lines that normally sail out of Miami opted instead to launch sailings in June from the Caribbean, where governments are eager to revive their tourism-based economies. The United States could be among the last cruise ship markets to reopen, possibly not until fall and not until 2022 in Alaska.
Currently, fewer than 20 ships are operating globally, a small fraction of CLIA's members' fleets of 270 ships. The pandemic has plunged global cruise ship passenger numbers from a record 30 million in 2019 to over 350,000 since July 2020, according to Cruise Lines International, the world's largest cruise industry association representing 95% of ocean-going cruise capacity. "After a year of restrictive measures, we thought we could take a break for a week and relax," said Stefania Battistoni, a 39-year-old teacher and single mother who drove all night from Bolzano, in northern Italy, with her two sons and mother to board the cruise. Passengers welcomed the semblance of normalcy brought on by the freedom to eat in a restaurant or sit poolside without a mask, even if the virus is still a present concern. On Wednesday, the Grandiosa left the Italian port of Civitavecchia for its week-long Easter cruise, with 2,000 of its 6,000-passenger capacity and stops planned in Naples and Valletta, Malta, before returning to its home port in Genoa.
Italy lockdown march 2021 plus#
Passengers from outside Italy must arrive with negative COVID-19 tests taken within 48 hours of their departures and only residents of Europe's Schengen countries plus Romania, Croatia and Bulgaria are permitted to book under COVID-19 insurance policies. Mask mandates, temperature checks, contact-tracing wristbands and frequent cleaning of the ship are all designed to prevent outbreaks. Passengers and crew are tested before and during cruises. In one of the anomalies of lockdowns that have shuttered hotels and resorts around the world, the Grandiosa has been plying the Mediterranean Sea this winter with seven-night cruises, a lonely flag-bearer of the global cruise industry.Īfter cruise ships were early sources of highly publicized coronavirus outbreaks, the Grandiosa has tried to chart a course through the pandemic with strict anti-virus protocols approved by Italian authorities that seek to create a "health bubble" on board. But a few miles offshore, guests aboard the MSC Grandiosa cruise ship are shimmying to Latin music on deck and sipping cocktails by the pool. More than 100,000 people with coronavirus have died in Italy since the pandemic swept the country a year ago, prompting a months-long lockdown and the worst recession since the second world war.ABOARD THE MSC GRANDIOSA - Italy may be in a strict coronavirus lockdown this Easter with travel restricted between regions and new quarantines imposed.
ĭraghi thanked Italians for their “infinite patience”, and said he was aware of the consequences the new measures would have on “children’s education, the economy and on everyone’s state of mind”.ĭuring a speech at a vaccination centre near Rome’s Fiumicino airport, he said: “The measures are necessary to avoid a deterioration that would make even more stringent measures inevitable … But they will be accompanied by for families and businesses, as well as the acceleration of the vaccine programme, which alone gives hope of an exit from the pandemic.”ĭraghi said that over the past week there had been an increase of almost 5,000 Covid-19 patients in hospital and 600 in intensive care. The restrictions will remain in place until Easter weekend, during which the whole country, apart from Sardinia, will be classified as a red zone. Sardinia was classified in the lowest-risk white zone earlier this month and will stay there. The Italian news agency, Ansa, reported on Friday that health minister Roberto Speranza will sign a decree that would see the regions of Lombardy, Lazio, Emilia-Romagna, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Veneto, Piedmont, Puglia, Marche and the province of Trento enter the red zone from Monday.Ĭampania and Molise were already in the red zone and will stay there, while Abruzzo, Tuscany, Calabria, Liguria, Molise, Puglia, Sicily, Umbria, the Aosta Valley and province of Bolzano will be in the slightly less stringent orange zone.
Italy registered 26,824 new Covid-19 infections on Friday and 380 deaths.
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