Three passengers on cruise ship transiting Canal covid-19 positive

The Emerald Princess cruise ship transited the  Panama Canal with three passengers who tested positive for Covid-19, but who were isolated in time inside the boat to avoid the contagion with the rest of the travelers said Israel H. Cedeño, Regional Director of the Ministry of Health.

According to the information registered with the Ministry of Health, before its arrival, the boat reported the need to disembark a passenger who had had an accident that caused a broken leg injury.

In addition, he reported that they had three crew members on board in isolation due to Covid-19, for which he requested the evaluation for the approval of disembarkation of the patient with a femur fracture, who has a complete vaccine scheme and has no symptoms.

Once the cruise ship arrived in Balboa, it was treated by Maritime Health, and based on the health evaluation, the disembarkation of the passenger was authorized for evaluation by orthopedics, in addition, rapid tests and PCR were performed on the three patients and 28 contacts.

“The 28 contacts were negative and remained in isolation, as were the three confirmed cases with mild symptoms,” said Cedeño.

The Emerald Princess has a capacity for more than 3,000 people, but on this trip, only about 1,000 passengers were on board.

There is a cruise reception protocol agreed between the Panama Maritime Authority, the Ministry of Health and the Panama Canal Authority in which each of the procedures to be followed for this type of vessel are detailed, taking into account consider the importance of tourism for economic reactivation.

This protocol establishes that passenger ships that arrive in jurisdictional waters or ports to carry out operations or transit through the Panama Canal must have implemented a plan to mitigate Covid-19 on board that comply with the standards of an international entity. This includes staff training, medical equipment, passenger temperature monitoring, physical distancing, cruise ship cleaning, and disinfection protocol.

One of the first passenger ships that Panama received, on August 26, was the Star Breeze of the Windstar Cruises line, which operates small luxury cruises in Europe, the South Pacific, the Caribbean, and Central America. All the passengers of this boat and its crew had the complete vaccination scheme against Covid-19 and negative tests.

The cruise industry, one of the most affected by the measures adopted by the Covid-19 pandemic, has proposed different measures to restart operations, including the increase in medical capabilities on board, which includes taking samples from onboard, isolation or quarantine cabins for symptomatic passengers or crew members and their direct contacts, testing 100% of passengers and crew prior to each trip and making shorter trips of no more than seven days in duration.