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Carnival Corp. plans to reimburse passengers cruising Australia’s Great Barrier Reef after dozens of people caught swine flu onboard the luxury ship Pacific Dawn.
Fifty-three passengers and crew tested positive for the H1N1 virus after two voyages on the 11-deck vessel. Most had a “mild illness” diagnosed after they disembarked in Sydney on May 25, health officials said. Pacific Dawn, with three infected crew members in isolation, is still sailing and due to reach Brisbane, Queensland’s capital, tomorrow.
Flu cases among those travelers have been found in Canberra and the states of New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia and Victoria, the nation’s health department said by e-mail today. The infections caused Australia’s swine flu tally to more than double to 168 since early yesterday.
“We are very sympathetic to our passengers who have not received the holiday they had hoped for,” Ann Sherry, chief executive officer of Carnival Australia, said in a statement today. “We are all adopting a very conservative approach to ensure the welfare of all passengers and crew.”
Miami-based Carnival will offer each passenger a 75 percent reimbursement of the fare paid and an extra 25 percent that can be used as credit on a future cruise, according to the statement. Passengers have already received A$100 ($79) of onboard credit.
The holidaymakers paid A$1,000 to A$5,000 for the 10-night trip on the Renzo Piano-designed ship that was to take them from Sydney to the Whitsunday Islands, Cairns, Port Douglas, Brisbane and back to Sydney, said Anthony Fisk, a Carnival Australia spokesman.
Casino, Jogging Track
The 795-cabin cruise ship, which boasts a casino, jogging track and five restaurants, made an unscheduled stop at Gladstone today so that five swabs from among the 1,900 passengers could be sent ashore for testing, the company said.
About 150 passengers who either live in Queensland or who will be traveling elsewhere will leave the ship when it docks in Brisbane, Jeannette Young, the state’s chief medical officer, said in a statement today.
“We will have a team of nurses and environmental health officers meeting the ship to carry out assessments,” Young said. Those with symptoms will be swabbed and provided with masks and a course of Roche Holding AG’s anti-flu medicine, Tamiflu, she said. All passengers will be asked to undertake voluntary home isolation for a week, she said.
Carnival was asked to alter the Pacific Dawn’s itinerary to avoid docking at Cairns and Port Douglas and minimize the risk of the virus spreading through Queensland’s major tourist centers, the state’s health department said.
New Caledonia
Swine flu may have spread to New Caledonia during Pacific Dawn’s previous voyage in the South Pacific, Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported today. Five people are suspected to have caught the bug in New Caledonia and almost 100 people are being monitored after the ship docked there for a day last week, ABC radio reported, citing Jean-Paul Grangeon, head of the French territory’s health department.
The infections on the Pacific Dawn may have stemmed from a 5-year-old boy who developed symptoms two days after starting the voyage to New Caledonia, Loyalty Islands and Vanuatu, Carnival’s Fisk said yesterday. The boy was diagnosed with the new strain, which was subsequently found in three people who had direct contact with him.
Under new protocol for arriving cruise ships, the New South Wales government will treat flu-like symptoms on such vessels as swine flu, pending tests to clear any infected people, state Health Minister John Della Bosca said in a May 27 statement.
Carnival said yesterday in a statement it is introducing measures to reduce risks, including screening passengers for flu before boarding and asking people with flu-like symptoms to report immediately to the ship’s medical center, where passengers will receive free treatment.
The company said May 18 that changing cruise itineraries because of a U.S. government recommendation against non- essential travel to Mexico, due to swine flu, may hurt earnings by 5 cents a share, the majority of which will be taken in the fiscal second quarter. |
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