Coronavirus: hundreds of cruise lines finally arrive in Barcelona and Marseille

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After a month of wandering, some of the passengers of the “Costa Deliziosa” were finally able to disembark in Barcelona, ​​this Monday, April 20, including 400 French nationals. In Marseille, more than 1,700 passengers on the Magnifica ship also began to disembark.

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With our correspondent , Elise Gazengel

They have been waiting a month for a landing. Early Monday, several hundred passengers on the Costa Deliziosa boat were finally able to land in Barcelona, Spain, before reaching their home. In total, 170 Spaniards, a handful of Portuguese but also 400 French, who will take a bus to reach Montpellier (south of France) where they will spend a night before reaching their final destination.

The rest of the 2,700 passengers will disembark in Genoa, Italy, tomorrow before being repatriated to their respective countries.

Leaving at sea in early January for a round the world trip, the cruise had to interrupt its program on March 15 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

So this morning, the tourists shared their joy and relief at finally being able to return home but also a certain fear in the face of a virus that they luckily did not know on board. Many finally said they were saddened to finish their world tour in such special circumstances.

In Marseille, 700 Frenchmen from Magnific also descend

In Marseille, more than 1,700 passengers, including 700 French, from the ship "Magnifica", where no case of Covid-19 has been detected, also began to land on Monday after a shortened world tour, the company announced MSC Cruises.

Since March 15, 2020, the French authorities have authorized the docking at the port of Marseille of six cruise ships, "  having enabled the repatriation of more than 2,200 French and European passengers  ", said the prefecture of Bouches-du-Rhône last Friday.

Since the appearance of the new coronavirus in China in late 2019, several cruise ships have in fact become hotbeds of the pandemic. Considered to be real time bombs, some were refused by several ports.

Others, not affected by Covid-19 cases, had to change their routes due to the closure of ports and borders in some countries. Cruise groups like Costa and MSC have decided to stop all departures until the end of May due to the health crisis.

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• Coronavirus
• Health and Medicine
• Spain

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