Carnival Corp’s Princess Cruises yesterday announced it would not allow passengers who have traveled in China within the past 14 days to board its cruise ships, although the exclusion would not apply to visitors traveling from Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau, due to the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) outbreak.
“Although the risk to our guests and crew is low, we are closely monitoring the evolving situation with respect to the coronavirus originating in mainland China. Our medical experts are coordinating closely with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the WHO to implement enhanced screening, prevention and control measures for our ships globally,” the company said.
Princess Cruises said it would perform preboarding medical evaluations of its passengers, including temperature checks, requiring passengers to report any illness or symptoms to the company, and screening for 2019-nCoV should they show symptoms of a respiratory illness.
Photo courtesy of Princess Cruises / Carnival Corp
It would “report to local and national health authorities all cases of fever and respiratory illness, and any patients with suspected coronavirus infection,” the company said.
Crew members who have traveled in China must wait until further notice before joining any cruise ship, while any staff scheduled to connect on a flight through China have been rerouted, the company said.
It has also changed the departing port for two voyages on May 2 and one voyage on June 3 from Shanghai to Yokohama, Japan, the company said.
Two round-trip cruises to Shanghai on the Sapphire Princess, scheduled for June 3 and June 11, have been canceled, it said.
“We are also looking to remove the transit calls to Shanghai on May 1 and July 17 on Sun Princess, replacing it with Japanese ports of calls,” with the new ports to be announced later, it said.
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