Crew members onboard the first post-lockdown Greek cruise reported positive for COVID-19. All passengers will remain in their cabins for the rest of the trip.
According to the Guardian, after the ship Mein Schiff 6 left from the Cretan port of Heraklion, the ship received positive test results for 12 crew members.
Commenting on the situation, the Anglo-German travel company Tui said that as a precautionary measure and in accordance with the strict procedures for resuming cruise operations agreed with authorities in Greece, the persons concerned were immediately isolated on board.
All of the infected staff were asymptomatic, while subjected to further COVID-19 tests on the ship later in the day, six were given the all-clear.
The ship had been en route to Corfu via Piraeus when the diagnoses came in. At that time, the captain halted the voyage and moored the vessel off the Aegean isle of Milos, until authorities in Athens instructed him to make straight for the capital’s port city.
While, Greek media report that all 922 of the ship’s passengers would be confined to their cabins, Tui said denied the reports, saying that the passengers can use the ship in the normal way, and the cruise will go on as planned.
A team of public health experts will visit the liner when it arrives in Piraeus on September 29, but officials indicated no one would be allowed to disembark.
