- Since the end of March and the discovery of cases of coronavirus on board, the members of the liner's crew have been awaiting their repatriation.
- A difficult operation with 65 nationalities represented among these staff.
They are still 700 people, or half the crew. Three weeks after the discovery of the first cases of coronavirus on board, the Celebrity Apex , a huge ocean liner delivered by Chantiers de l'Atlantique at the very start of containment, has not yet been evacuated. But the health situation is not worrying on board, indicates this Wednesday Michel Bergue, sub-prefect of Saint-Nazaire.
At the end of March, several members of the crew of this liner, capable of accommodating some 2,900 passengers, had tested positive for the Covid-19. On Tuesday, two people were still hospitalized at the Saint-Nazaire hospital following the spread of the virus. A total of 1,444 people were tested and 224 were positive.
Filipinos and Indians waiting
At the start, there were 1,463 people, and 65 different nationalities: the crew members and subcontractors present on board to finalize the final preparations before the boat's inaugural cruise, which ultimately did not take place due to the coronavirus epidemic. Among them, 555 people have managed to return to their homes around the world, but there are still several hundred on Wednesday waiting for a repatriation which promises to be complicated for many. Ultimately, this liner must be occupied by at least 200 people for maintenance.
"Today, the two most represented nationalities on board are Filipino nationals and Indian nationals," said Michel Bergue. The repatriation of each represents a specific logistics with for example the case of Filipinos originating from islands very far from Manila airport.
On board, the health situation is not worrying according to the prefecture and the regional health agency (ARS) of Pays de la Loire who communicate on the results of tests passed by the crew. The vast majority of positive people have never had any symptoms of the disease and each member of the crew is confined alone in a separate cabin.
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Coronavirus on board a liner in Saint-Nazaire: Screening, repatriation ... The difficult care of the confined crew
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- Covid 19
- Society
- Coronavirus
- Ocean liner
- Saint Nazaire