SeaDream Yacht Club, an Oslo-based private owner of two cruiseships, has suspended sailings following a Covid-19 outbreak on the very first ship to sail the Caribbean since March.
The high-end cruise operator last week announced that seven passengers and two crewmembers on 112-berth SeaDream 1 (built 1984) caught the virus while headed to Barbados.
"The company will now spend time to evaluate and see if it is possible to operate and have a high degree of certainty of not getting Covid," it said on Tuesday.
SeaDream, which tested all passengers for Covid-19 before boarding, has handed the infected passengers and crew to Barbados health authorities for quarantine.
Unfortunately, the SeaDream 1 had about 20 journalists covering the ill-fated cruise.
The other 97 passengers and non-essential crew of remaining 93 seafarers await permission to disembark while staying in their cabins as the ship stays anchored in port.
"SeaDream is familiar with responding rapidly thanks to the crew’s professionalism and preparedness," the company asid.
"SeaDream operated successfully earlier this year in Norway, completing 21 voyages during the summer season as the first luxury line to resume sailing."
SeaDream carried out its Norway itineraries onboard 112-berth SeaDream 2 (built 1985) without any Covid-19 outbreaks.
Medical staff aboard SeaDream 1, which offered the Caribbean itineraries, retested all crew members for Covid-19 and all tests came back negative.
Both ships' 95-member crews are certified for the World Health Organisation’s Infection Prevention and Control for novel coronavirus course, SeaDream said.
They have also successfully passed Johns Hopkins University's Covid-19 contact tracing course.
“After completing a successful summer season in Norway, we implemented even stricter health and safety protocols for our Barbados winter season," said SeaDream founder and chairman Andreas Brynestad said in a statement.
“We are working closely with local health and government authorities to resolve this situation in the best possible way. Our main priority is the health and safety of our crew, guests, and the communities we visit.”
SeaDream was exempt from the US Centers for Disease Control & Prevention's "No-Sail Order" and "Framework for Conditional Sailing" because its ships carry less than 250 passengers and crew combined.
Miami-based cruise majors Carnival Corp, Royal Caribbean Group and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings, all of which have vessels that carry thousands of passengers, did not immediately return calls.
