Ten newly arrived AIDA crew test positive for COVID-19

First AIDA crew members arrived on a chartered flight from Manila/ [Image: Philippines Embassy, Berlin

Broadcaster NDR reports that ten AIDA Cruises crew members have tested positive for the coronavirus since arrival in Germany from Asia in preparations for next month’s planned resumption of cruises by Carnival Corporation’s German market cruise brand and other German cruise lines.

NDR says that AIDA Cruises is still planning to go ahead with its planned cruise schedule and reports that the Rostock health department estimates that the likelihood that many other crew members could have been infected is low. The affected crew are in strict individual isolation and are housed on land. Nine of them were completely symptom-free and one crew member was slightly ill. Hospitalization has so far not been necessary.

In total, 750 AIDA crew arrived in Rostock on June 22, on three chartered flights from Asia. The first flight brought in 217 Filipino crewmembers from Manila. On hand to welcome them in Rostock were AIDA Cruises officials, Philippine Ambassador to Germany Theresa Dizon-De Vega, Consul Marie Chris Chieng, and Labor Attaché Delmer Cruz.

The seafarers will form part of the teams on three AIDA cruise vessels, the AIDA Blu, AIDA Mar, and AIDA Pearl. The vessels will be operating out of Rostock, Hamburg and Kiel on short cruises that make no port calls — in other words, what the cruise industry used to call “cruises to nowhere.”