Carnival plans to restart cruises on eight ships from its Miami and Texas ports on August 1 after coronavirus shutdown
- Cruises from Miami, Port Canaveral and Galveston are set to resume on August 1
- Operations for other North American ports will be suspended through August 31
- In a statement, the company said: ‘We are committed to supporting all public health efforts to manage the COVID-19 situation
- Days after COVID-19 was declared a pandemic, CDC issued no-sail order in US
- At the time, there were still ships at sea and some eventually reported outbreaks
- One-fifth of all global ocean cruise ships were infected with coronavirus, leaving at least 2,592 crew and passengers infected and killing at least 66 people
- As of Friday, there are 100,000 crew members still stuck on ships across globe
- Here’s how to help people impacted by Covid-19
Carnival said on Monday that it plans to restart some of its cruise trips from North America in August as it tries to recover from the coronavirus pandemic.
The company said it planned to resume cruises on eight ships from Miami, Port Canaveral in Brevard County, Florida, and Galveston, Texas, on August 1.
In Galveston, the Carnival Dream, Freedom and Vista are among those expected to set sail in August.
Carnival said on Monday that it plans to restart some of its cruise trips from North America in August as it tries to recover from the coronavirus pandemic. The Carnival Panorama is seen docked in California
The Carnival Horizon, Carnival Magic and Carnival Sensation in Miami along with the Carnival Breeze and Elation in Port Canaveral will also resume on August 1.
Operations in all other North American and Australian markets would remain suspended through August 31.
In a statement, the company said: ‘We are committed to supporting all public health efforts to manage the COVID-19 situation.
‘We are taking a measured approach, focusing our return to service on a select number of homeports where we have more significant operations that are easily accessible by car for the majority of our guests.’
British cruise lines P&O Cruises and Cunard – which are also part of the Carnival group – announced last month that its sailings are suspended until at least the end of July.
P&O Cruises said passengers will need to pass ‘rigorous’ medical checks before being allowed to board ships once operations resume.
The cruise line is developing plans to introduce a series of ‘stringent measures’ to ensure it obeys international health guidelines when it restarts operations once the coronavirus pandemic recedes.
Other changes being considered include reducing the capacity of ships, scrapping self-service buffets and implementing one-way systems on board.
On March 11, when the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic, around 550,000 passengers were on cruises.
Two days later, more than 50 cruise lines announced they were suspending operations to and from the US due to the pandemic.
On March 14, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a no-sail order in US waters.
At the time, there were ships still at sea and some vessels left just before the order was announced.
Eventually, ships from the world’s largest cruise lines – Carnival, Royal Caribbean Cruises, Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings and MSC Cruises – started reporting outbreaks.
Last week, data compiled by the Miami Herald revealed that one-fifth of all global ocean cruise ships were infected with coronavirus, leaving at least 2,592 crew and passengers infected and killing at least 66 people.
Cases of the deadly virus can be directly linked to at least 54 cruise ships, as they continued to travel the waters while the pandemic ravaged communities on land.
At least 922 of those infected and 12 who died were crew members working on the ships.
As of Friday, there are a total of 100,000 crew members still stuck on ships across the globe. Fifty of those ships have reported cases of the coronavirus.