German line AIDA Cruises, a subsidiary of Carnival Corp. , postponed its restart date and plans to resume navigation in the Mediterranean on October 17, said in a statement through Roger Frizzell, spokesman for Carnival Corp.
Wednesday’s resolution comes immediately after its sister line, the restart of Costa Cruises on September 6 in Italy and a few weeks after the line delayed its restart date to November 1, cancelling the September and October cruises planned in the past due to COVID. -19 pandemic.
Instead of waiting until November, the line announced new seven-day routes that will pass through Italy with departures in October. They plan to fly boats from Civitavecchia, near Rome, and palermo and Catania in Sicily, as well as Naples and La Spezia with an evening in Rome.
The ad did not specify which shipment(s) recent scheduled trips will be made on, but bookings will open on Monday. Weekly trips will be available until November 28.
To resume navigation, the “AIDA Health and Safety Program” must be implemented on all ships.
“Developed with leading medical experts, the program has been audited and displayed through the renowned independent audit firm SGS Fresenius Institute and the classification company DNV-GL,” the line said in Wednesday’s statement. “Measurements come with a loose COVID-19 test, normal temperature measurements for visitors and crew, physical distance and superior disinfection measurements. “
In a report containing information published sunday, the World Health Organization indexed Italy with a slightly higher mortality rate than millions in the last seven days than the United States, its coronavirus spread across groups rather than the network transmission that continues to occur in the country. United States. . . Since the epidemic began, Italy has recorded nearly 290,000 cases and 35,633 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins data. The United States, by comparison, recorded more than 6. 6 million cases and nearly 196,000 deaths.
In their August announcement, they said that scheduled cruise ships in the western Mediterranean, of which Italy is a part, would be cancelled by autumn and winter 2020 and 2021 respectively, hence the new itineraries. autumn and winter at that time.
The cruise line also announced in July that 3 of its ships would resume operations in August with new fitness and hygiene protocols and nonstop operations. Later, AIDA delayed restarting operations in August because the flag state of the cruise company, Italy, had given formal approval.
When AIDA began preparing for operational restart, it also treated several cases of coronavirus among arriving crews.
In the United States, the cruiser is also suspended until November, according to the industry’s voluntary suspension extension previously issued this month, however, some cruise lines, adding Princess Cruises, which is also part of the Carnival Corp. family, have postponed their suspension until December. The Restricted Order of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will expire on September 30.
USA TODAY contacted AIDA for more details.
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