Cruise industry commits to work with Caribbean through COVID-19

A leading official in the cruise industry has committed to work with the Caribbean in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, which is impacting countries around the world.

In recent weeks a number of countries in the region have turned away cruise ships because of suspected cases of COVID-19 on board.

“[We want to] operate and continue to provide opportunities for the economies while keeping our crew, our guests and the locals that we come in contact with, as we bring our guests to places here throughout the Caribbean, healthy and safe,” Chief Executive Officer of Carnival Arnold Donald said.

“The entire cruise industry looks forward to working with each nation to arrive at what’s going to work best for them and their citizens.”

Donald was speaking at a press conference on Sunday following a special meeting hosted by Chairman of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), Prime Minister Mia Mottley, to discuss ways of protecting the region from COVID-19.

“For us, it was important to be here to participate to encourage everyone to align with the guidance and procedures from the World Health Organization and other global medical experts,” Arnold said.

He said the cruise industry has a number of screening procedures and protocols for prevention, adding that surveillance and response are very integral to their operations.

Arnold pointed out that through the years, there have been a number of disease issues and scares around the world and the cruise industry has dealt with them all.

“In our case, we go to over 700 ports per year and there is always something going on somewhere. We have even dealt with issues here in the Caribbean,” Arnold said.

“So these protocols that we have in place tend to serve us well and of course we fine tune them, as we have in this case, for the specific disease or illness situation that arises and in this case it’s COVID-19.”