12 confirmed Covid-19 cases on Coral Princess
Seven passengers and five crew members have tested positive for Covid-19 on Princess Cruises’ Coral Princess, which is sailing towards Florida.
It is the fourth Princess ship to report an outbreak of the virus, following the Diamond Princess, which had at least 712 cases, the Grand Princess with 103, and the Ruby Princess where more than 400 were infected.
The Coral Princess plans to dock in Fort Lauderdale tomorrow, but, according to a report in the Miami Herald, there is no plan in place yet to receive the ship.
Princess Cruises said that that seven passengers and five crew members tested positive after the ship dropped off samples taken from 13 people onboard in Barbados on March 31.
There are a total of 1,898 people on the ship, including 1,020 passengers, of which 374 are British. It is not known if any British passengers are suffering from coronavirus, but concerned family members can call 0800 088 5401 for further information.
Coral Princess had tried to disembark all passengers in Buenos Aires on March 19 and 20 after the cruise line announced on March 12 that it was suspending all cruises for 60-days, but due to various complications it was unable to do so.
Passengers on the ship have been confined to their rooms since Tuesday when the cruise line noticed a higher than normal number of flu-like cases on board. Until then, they had been allowed to roam freely onboard.
The Coral Princess’s planned arrival in Port Everglades Saturday follows the arrival of two Holland Americal Line cruise ships yesterday with Covid-19 cases onboard.
The Zaandam had previously spent 12 days stranded at sea with no ports willing to let it dock, despite having critically ill patients onboard.
Four of the sick passengers, including a 75-year-old British man, died.
Port documents indicated that 13 more passengers and one crew member were so critically ill that they would require immediate hospitalisation.
The ship’s sister vessel, the Rotterdam, met up with the Zaandam in Panama to take some of the healthier passengers but it also had sick passengers onboard by the time it docked in Florida.
Princess has just one more ship, the Pacific Princess still at sea, sailing towards Los Angeles.
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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