Grand Princess Gastro And Covid Outbreak

[arxcards]

3 minutes ago, MMDown Under said:

Yes I have noticed crew unwell before they were absent.  Do they get paid when they can't serve people?

Depends. On some lines I have read service staff lose their auto gratuities for the period they are not on deck.

[mum and son]

29 minutes ago, Ozwoody said:

The implications of these "news" stories, and comments from some people, is that its the ship lines problem. When its the people who board who bring it on board with them, or spread it because of their lax hygiene, no news story ever tries to educate people about what they should be doing, or the importance of self isolation if your unwell.

Not that I expect them to...  But would be nice if they could once in a while.🙄

I agree completely. Yes, a cruise ship is a confined space and there will always be guests and crew who have covid but, seriously, its like passengers have some aversion to sanitising or washing their hands. People give so many excuses, like, I washed my hands before I left the cabin, I just had a swim, I just had a shower. Why do passengers think an extra hand wash is going to hurt them? Do they think they'll over wash and their skin will fall off? 

 

Sometimes when I'm trying to locate my parents on board I'll walk through each side of the buffet several times while doing circles. I don't touch anything on my walk through but I happily sanitise each time because that's the process. I actually have this cute little sanitiser that hangs on my lanyard and, after getting our food and sitting at our table I always do a quick sanitise for myself and my parents before we start eating. Every little bit helps.

 

[MMDown Under]

1 minute ago, arxcards said:

Depends. On some lines I have read service staff lose their auto gratuities for the period they are not on deck.

We had a girl working on her first cruise who got very seasick.  She tried to work but she couldn't.

[Ozwoody]

15 minutes ago, arxcards said:

True. And you can avoid those people or mask-up around them.

 

Covid has a knack that a number of those infected are asymptomatic, and that is why it has been such a challenge on cruise ships. 

 

The crew can also unknowingly circulate these bugs.

Yep they do, but usually its because they caught it from a passenger that brought the dam thing on board. Maybe as you say unknowingly.

But the main point is if you start to feel unwell, separate yourself, stop circulating.

 

[yarramar]

3 hours ago, Ozwoody said:

But the main point is if you start to feel unwell, separate yourself, stop circulating.

 

Yes, but on a ship with 2500 + pax, there will always be a percentage that want to "get their money's worth" 

[Aus Traveller]

5 hours ago, MMDown Under said:

Yes I have noticed crew unwell before they were absent.  Do they get paid when they can't serve people?

I am pretty certain they are still paid even if they are off sick. Signage in the crew area  also states that it is a 'disciplinary offence' if they don't return to their cabin immediately they feel unwell and report to the medical centre when it is open. Medical treatment is at no charge to the crew.

 

On the Australian ships there are no auto gratuities so that isn't an issue. On other ships the gratuities make up part of their expected monthly remuneration so I doubt that it would be affected by time off work for illness.

[Hammer61]

Not surprised by this, we got off the Royal Princess on 3rd November and both of us went down with COVID a few days later, lots of coughing and spluttering on board.

 

Although we enjoyed the trip i was bit disappointed as it was only towards the end of the trip they put anyone on the door at the Horizon Court, and even then, it was only an encouragement to wash your hands, with only 2 sinks most people just ignored them or said they would sanitize. 

 

Just all part of living with COVID but maybe the cruise lines need to up the ante a bit to minimize these outbreaks, more encouragement of hygiene when entering food venues and maybe they go back to no self-service?

[ceeceeDee]

5 hours ago, mum and son said:

I agree completely. Yes, a cruise ship is a confined space and there will always be guests and crew who have covid but, seriously, its like passengers have some aversion to sanitising or washing their hands. People give so many excuses, like, I washed my hands before I left the cabin, I just had a swim, I just had a shower. Why do passengers think an extra hand wash is going to hurt them? Do they think they'll over wash and their skin will fall off? 

 

Sometimes when I'm trying to locate my parents on board I'll walk through each side of the buffet several times while doing circles. I don't touch anything on my walk through but I happily sanitise each time because that's the process. I actually have this cute little sanitiser that hangs on my lanyard and, after getting our food and sitting at our table I always do a quick sanitise for myself and my parents before we start eating. Every little bit helps.

 

My little hand sanitizer hangs off my small cross body bag and hubby has his on his belt loop so basically we are never without sanitizer at the ready. Even though I sanitize before entering any of the restaurants, I still use my personal one before eating. Seriously, it is no big deal to be hygiene conscious and so far neither of us has ever been sick on a cruise.

[timtam2]

Ahhh, Channel 7 news is about to start the scare mongering again, trying to link the broader uptick in covid cases in Australia with the return of cruise ships. Here we go again.. 🙄

[timtam2]

Fortunately, the actual story didn't end up being as bad as the ads during The Chase suggested. 

[bazzaw]

"The doctor on a cruise ship stricken by COVID-19 and gastro has declared the outbreak over, but concern remains over an uptick in cases in the broader community. 

Passengers began disembarking the Grand Princess cruise ship after it docked in Adelaide on Monday morning following an 18-day round trip to Queensland and back. 

 

Three passengers and two crew members had gastro while eight guests were suffering from COVID-like symptoms, SA Chief Public Health Officer Nicola Spurrier said.

She said the case numbers were relatively small compared to the ship's population of more than 2500 guests and 1000 crew.

"I commend the company," she told reporters on Monday. 

"They have very good infection prevention and control mechanisms in place and protocols to deal with outbreaks. And those outbreaks came down very, very quickly as the staff instituted those measures."     -- *****!!!!!!!!

[arxcards]

3 hours ago, Aus Traveller said:

On other ships the gratuities make up part of their expected monthly remuneration so I doubt that it would be affected by time off work for illness.

It does. It works like a bonus in their pay structure. No work, no grats. I don't know that this is the case across all lines, but it is documented on crew blogs.

 

Yes, the Aussie ships are different, but they are in the minority over the summer.

[MicCanberra]

2 hours ago, bazzaw said:

"The doctor on a cruise ship stricken by COVID-19 and gastro has declared the outbreak over, but concern remains over an uptick in cases in the broader community. 

Passengers began disembarking the Grand Princess cruise ship after it docked in Adelaide on Monday morning following an 18-day round trip to Queensland and back. 

 

Three passengers and two crew members had gastro while eight guests were suffering from COVID-like symptoms, SA Chief Public Health Officer Nicola Spurrier said.

She said the case numbers were relatively small compared to the ship's population of more than 2500 guests and 1000 crew.

"I commend the company," she told reporters on Monday. 

"They have very good infection prevention and control mechanisms in place and protocols to deal with outbreaks. And those outbreaks came down very, very quickly as the staff instituted those measures."     -- *****!!!!!!!!

13 people out of 4000, that sure is newsworthy

[mum and son]

1 hour ago, MicCanberra said:

13 people out of 4000, that sure is newsworthy

What the? Slow news day obviously... 

[JohnGc]

I don't know if it is true but I did read the following. I wish all ships had a hand washing station on entry to the buffets.

 

Hand sanitizer does not work well against norovirus. You can use hand sanitizers in addition to hand washing, but hand sanitizer is not a substitute for handwashing, which is best.

[arxcards]

10 hours ago, MicCanberra said:

13 people out of 4000, that sure is newsworthy

The story was for Melbourne on Saturday, but the media mostly missed it. For the majority of passengers, yesterday in Adelaide was day 2 of a new cruise.

 

I don't know if they are on top of their outbreaks or not, but there was somewhat of reset of their numbers on Saturday. Only newsworthy if you squint and hold your mouth in a certain way.

[arxcards]

6 hours ago, JohnGc said:

I don't know if it is true but I did read the following. I wish all ships had a hand washing station on entry to the buffets.

 

Hand sanitizer does not work well against norovirus. You can use hand sanitizers in addition to hand washing, but hand sanitizer is not a substitute for handwashing, which is best.

Washing your hands properly is a bit better than sanitising properly. The benefit is that any of the nasties go down the drain with the water.

 

Either is better than washing or sanitising poorly, and massively better than doing neither.

[Hogbay]

11 hours ago, MicCanberra said:

13 people out of 4000, that sure is newsworthy

It's anticruiseism 🤣 no one reports on people flying jetstar to Bali and return ."Bali Belly " is the reality and is just accepted . I doubt it would be anywere near as low as 3.4% .

[lyndarra]

8 hours ago, JohnGc said:

I don't know if it is true but I did read the following. I wish all ships had a hand washing station on entry to the buffets.

 

Hand sanitizer does not work well against norovirus. You can use hand sanitizers in addition to hand washing, but hand sanitizer is not a substitute for handwashing, which is best.

Hand sanitiser if ineffective against Norovirus. It's the mechanical action of handwashing that is effective. As arxcards alluded. Wishy washy. Chlorine kills noro. There is no chlorine in hand sanitiser.

However, sanitiser is effective for COVID control.

On a group tour in Mexico many were using hand sanitiser and still coming down with Montezuma's revenge (noro). My wife and I did the wishy washy and we were fine.

[MicCanberra]

11 hours ago, mum and son said:

What the? Slow news day obviously... 

Thes3 numbers were for Adelaide's arrival. The Melbourne figures would have been much higher, probably over a hundred, for health authorities to be notified, hence the news story.

[MicCanberra]

Hand washing is the best and easiest way to stop transmission

[buchhalm]

Post #36  mentions a total of THREE people with gastro. 

That is considered an OUTBREAK by certain trash media outlets?

Gimme a $#%#!! break!

[Normanville]

Just off the Grand in Adelaide and not well. She has now had 4 Deep cleans and hand. washing plus sanitising was mandatory before you received a plate and utensils.

Staff were telling us that it was a very sick ship. I think the majority of cases got off in Melbourne but the new ones on the 4 day cruise were not aware of the situation and certainly not washing or sanitising enough, so I hope the circle doesn’t continue.

We still had a great cruise but don’t need the new experience of Nova or Covid again.

[MMDown Under]

2 minutes ago, buchhalm said:

Post #36  mentions a total of THREE people with gastro. 

That is considered an OUTBREAK by certain trash media outlets?

Gimme a $#%#!! break!

Health Authorities were notified, enough said.  Once a certain number of ill passengers are reached they are required by law to notify the Health Authorities.  (see MicCanberra)

 

[pully8]

Interesting times.

SA Health authorities seemed to say no worries the cruise lines have the protocols sorted around infection control.

Individual responsibility and sensible precautions to minimise infection anywhere.

Luckily no one seems to be gravely ill just unpleasant and inconvenient.

Which could happen anywhere best to be prepared as much as possible.