MSC Grandiosa - passenger tested positive for covid-19

[deadzone1003]

I have never been on a MSC ship, but I think this to be of some interest to the people on this forum.  Apparently, the MSC Grandiosa is currently returning to Genoa after a week long cruise.  Didn't even know that Europe still have ships sailing.  I checked on cruisemapper.com and the ship is completing its week long cruise.  However, I found the story about the covid-19 passenger on youtube.com.

 

The link is:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8T-HsBYU2E

 

 

[Beamafar]

All it takes is one passenger to be tested positive (even a false positive) for your cruise to be potentially ruined if you’ve been deemed to have been in close contact with that person.

 

Personally, I don’t fancy risking being confined to the cabin (DH was once for one night on doctor’s orders and it was no fun!) - that is not what I sign up for when booking a cruise, but that is now something that must be considered as a real possibility for future sailing.

 

This virus is going nowhere and vaccines are not going to eradicate it for the foreseeable future.  I doubt our May and August sailings will go ahead but I don’t think we’ll even do our October cruise should it not be cancelled.  We’ll play it by ear for now but the signs aren’t good that this year won’t be much different from last year.

[Preziosa]

It is an old story.....

[emmas gran]

By Jim Walker on February 17, 2021

POSTED IN DISEASE

A cruise guest aboard the MSC Grandiosa tested positive for COVID-19 yesterday, according to the Italian newspaper Giornale Di Sicilia (GPS). The case was widely reported in the Italian press whereas the U.S. media has not yet commented on the story.

 

Just found this on Events at Sea website

Edited February 21, 2021 by emmas gran
addition

[sidari]

Two people were taken off the ship in Palermo which held up the sailing time for a short while, this was mentioned by a person doing live videos which were posted on social media and who was on the second week of her cruise. One other poster onboard mentioned it being a positive case and that it was mentioned in the Islands newspaper.

[jerseyjjs]

5 hours ago, Preziosa said:

It is an old story.....

 

 

4 days is an "old" story?   

[Preziosa]

Sorry I thought it was an old story...

[HappyInVan]

Fortunately, this was a Med cruise and MSC had pre-arranged with Palermo. It didn't happen in the middle of an ocean, or off the coast of Africa.

 

What would $$$happen$$$ if pax went to hospital in a place where their national health insurance was invalid? 😬

[SirWolf]

5 minutes ago, HappyInVan said:

What would $$$happen$$$ if pax went to hospital in a place where their national health insurance was invalid? 😬

My US Health Insurance doesn’t cover overseas trips. I always buy Travel Health Insurance and recently paid attention for Covid-19 coverage. My recent policy for trip in April includes $100,000 Covid-19 coverage. I am fully vaccinated (2nd shot last week) and don’t expect to need Covid-19 insurance but bought the policy anyway before I got vaccinated.

[sverigecruiser]

23 minutes ago, HappyInVan said:

 

What would $$$happen$$$ if pax went to hospital in a place where their national health insurance was invalid? 😬

 

I don't think that could happen on that cruise. Probably only italians on the cruise with health insurance within the EU. Other EU passengers should also have a valid health insurance.

[deadzone1003]

Point of this story is that there were protocols in place which allowed the cruise to continue.  They just didn't return to its embarkation point.  Currently, it has just left Genoa, cruising to Civitavecchia.  Don't know if it is a new cruise or not.  I doubt if the passengers of these cruises were even vaccinated (probably some were, but I suspect most were not).  This is kind of a peek into what cruising will be like.  I think every cruise line will have to switch to a Princess Medallion system (where you basically carry a tracker which also operates as a key card as well as a charge card within the ship).  The most interesting thing is that MSC was able to track down all the people who the infected person who came into contact with and quarantine them as well if the contact was deemed sufficient to transmit the virus.  Look at it this way, these passengers were unvaccinated and the protocols seem to have worked.  When we return to cruising, passengers will be required to be vaccinated which will be an additional layer of protection.    

[8420PR]

3 hours ago, deadzone1003 said:

Point of this story is that there were protocols in place which allowed the cruise to continue. 

Exactly - close contacts (more than 15min within 1.5m, so effectively the people in the same cabin) will be informed and will need to isolate themselves, and the rest of the passengers will continue the cruise.  

 

It's not the first case on a cruise ship, and won't be the last.  The good news is that as passengers are being tested at the start and end (a requirement for the flight home), we know the measures taken on board are effective.

 

Here is a case a couple of week ago from a TUI ship cruising in Spain.  It was widely reported in Germany but this was the only english news I could find:

https://www.cruisehive.com/cruise-ship-covid-outbreak-swiftly-dealt-with/47010

 

Given the testing, capacity controls and onboard measures, the chances of catching COVID-19 onboard one of few cruise ships operating in Europe are lower than in day to day life.  It is worth noting though that if you do catch COVID-19 while in Italy you will have to stay in Italy until you get two negative tests.

 

[sidari]

6 hours ago, deadzone1003 said:

Point of this story is that there were protocols in place which allowed the cruise to continue.  They just didn't return to its embarkation point.  Currently, it has just left Genoa, cruising to Civitavecchia.  Don't know if it is a new cruise or not.  I doubt if the passengers of these cruises were even vaccinated (probably some were, but I suspect most were not).  This is kind of a peek into what cruising will be like.  I think every cruise line will have to switch to a Princess Medallion system (where you basically carry a tracker which also operates as a key card as well as a charge card within the ship).  The most interesting thing is that MSC was able to track down all the people who the infected person who came into contact with and quarantine them as well if the contact was deemed sufficient to transmit the virus.  Look at it this way, these passengers were unvaccinated and the protocols seem to have worked.  When we return to cruising, passengers will be required to be vaccinated which will be an additional layer of protection.    

All of the Grandiosa cruises start and end in Genoa, MSC have adapted their wristbands to work as a track and trace system prior to the first sailing at the end of July 2020, previously only available to Aurea and Yacht Club guests for opening cabin door and payments for goods, and recorded drink packages of those who had them booked. The wristbands are now available to all guests onboard.

[deadzone1003]

6 minutes ago, sidari said:

All of the Grandiosa cruises start and end in Genoa, MSC have adapted their wristbands to work as a track and trace system prior to the first sailing at the end of July 2020, previously only available to Aurea and Yacht Club guests for opening cabin door and payments for goods, and recorded drink packages of those who had them booked. The wristbands are now available to all guests onboard.

It is basically the same as the Princess Medallion system.  If you don't like Apple or Google tracking you on your mobile phone, cruise lines will be tracking you on the ship every minute of the day, LOL.

[BoundForSea]

On 2/21/2021 at 3:54 PM, 8420PR said:

Exactly - close contacts (more than 15min within 1.5m, so effectively the people in the same cabin) will be informed and will need to isolate themselves, and the rest of the passengers will continue the cruise.  

 

It's not the first case on a cruise ship, and won't be the last.  The good news is that as passengers are being tested at the start and end (a requirement for the flight home), we know the measures taken on board are effective.

 

Here is a case a couple of week ago from a TUI ship cruising in Spain.  It was widely reported in Germany but this was the only english news I could find:

https://www.cruisehive.com/cruise-ship-covid-outbreak-swiftly-dealt-with/47010

 

Given the testing, capacity controls and onboard measures, the chances of catching COVID-19 onboard one of few cruise ships operating in Europe are lower than in day to day life.  It is worth noting though that if you do catch COVID-19 while in Italy you will have to stay in Italy until you get two negative tests.

 

Here’s a question, the CDC in US has said if youve been fully vaccinated and have contact with someone positive, you no longer need to isolate or quarantine unless you yourself have symptoms (highly unlikely to impossible). Will this apply to the phased restart of sailing if they contact trace you to a positive case, if so that will make it far more comfortable and less dicey to have to worry about being confined to your cabin. 

Edited February 23, 2021 by BoundForSea

[dexddd]

7 hours ago, BoundForSea said:

Here’s a question, the CDC in US has said if youve been fully vaccinated and have contact with someone positive, you no longer need to isolate or quarantine unless you yourself have symptoms (highly unlikely to impossible). Will this apply to the phased restart of sailing if they contact trace you to a positive case, if so that will make it far more comfortable and less dicey to have to worry about being confined to your cabin. 

I generally don't weigh in on these subjects, but who knows.  The cdc did say that, and initially after seven days after second dose then 14 and of course with several caveats.  One of those was only for three months.  Whether they don't know, are guessing there is implication they say vaccine only good for three months.

 

Of coursed they will change things yet again.

[deadzone1003]

12 hours ago, BoundForSea said:

Here’s a question, the CDC in US has said if youve been fully vaccinated and have contact with someone positive, you no longer need to isolate or quarantine unless you yourself have symptoms (highly unlikely to impossible). Will this apply to the phased restart of sailing if they contact trace you to a positive case, if so that will make it far more comfortable and less dicey to have to worry about being confined to your cabin. 

In the beginning I would think cruise lines would err on the side of caution and they would apply their protocols strictly.  Maybe, after some time of actual use of protocols, each individual cruise line would loosen their protocols somewhat especially if no cases are ever discovered on their ships. 

[KennyFla]

On 2/22/2021 at 10:32 PM, BoundForSea said:

Here’s a question, the CDC in US has said if youve been fully vaccinated and have contact with someone positive, you no longer need to isolate or quarantine unless you yourself have symptoms (highly unlikely to impossible). Will this apply to the phased restart of sailing if they contact trace you to a positive case, if so that will make it far more comfortable and less dicey to have to worry about being confined to your cabin. 

 

Israel is taking a different approach, one that I believe is true (no surprise):

 

"Israel has administered at least one dose of Pfizer to nearly half of its population, and vaccinated Israelis were 95.8 percent less likely to get coronavirus and 98.9 percent less likely to be hospitalized or die than those without vaccinations. A sharp decline in hospitalization and serious illness was also reported for the first time in people aged 55 and older, according to Reuters.

But the difference is Israel is framing the vaccine as a reward that leads to getting back to normal activities, or a "carrot," as Fox News medical contributor Dr. Marc Siegel put it. The U.S. largely is not."

 

 

For whatever reason, this country is continuing the fear mongering,  claiming masks and lockdowns continue even after everyone is vaccinated.

[deadzone1003]

40 minutes ago, Couple-Somerset said:

 

and the person sleeping nearest them in the next cabin - if they go purely by distance lol

Only if they have adjoining doors

[Happygcruiser]

Happened with us: 

 

[Preziosa]

Happycruiser which border between Germany and Austria did you use for comming to Genova.

And which border between Austria and Italy did you use. Thank You