Two Costa Cruises ships - Favolosa and Magica - are scheduled to dock at PortMiami Florida on Thursday, March 26, with 30 sick people onboard, a spokesperson for the company said.
At least 6 on Costa Favolosa and 2 on Costa Magica have tested positive for Coronavirus (COVID-19) in recent weeks after disembarking from the liners. Currently, only crew remain onboard and at least 30 of them have flu-like symptoms, a spokesperson for Carnival Corporation (owner of Costa Cruises) revealed.
Both vessels were originally homeported in Guadeloupe (Pointe-a-Pitre) for 7- and 14-night Caribbean roundtrips. The ships were in the middle of their Caribbean programs when on March 13th the cruise industry suspended operations worldwide in response to the pandemic.
Cruisers from both ships disembarked in mid-March and returned home via chartered flights from Martinique and Guadeloupe. According to Costa, following the debarkation, 3 passengers and 3 crew from Costa Favolosa tested Coronavirus-positive. Currently, Favolosa has 1009 crew.
After disembarking Costa Magica, 1 passenger and 1 crew tested positive. Magica now has 930 crew onboard. Costa said that all the staff/crew (except engine and deck crew) have been isolated in individual passenger cabins for several days.
Authorities in Martinique and Guadeloupe don't allow ships to remain there. Instead, the liners sailed in circles (close to Antilla Cuba) on Wednesday, hoping to dock and repatriate the crew from Havana Airport. All other Caribbean ports turned the ships away.
For Coronavirus updates on cruise ship quarantines (infected passengers and crew) and top-pandemic countries (COVID-19 cases and deaths, daily updated statistics) see at CruiseMapper's Norovirus page.