Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

TOURISM

Italian cruises won’t restart until May due to latest lockdown, says Costa Cruises

Italian cruise line Costa Cruises will not resume sailing until May, the company has announced, due to travel restrictions linked to the third wave of coronavirus.

Published: 23 March 2021 10:24 CET
Italian cruises won't restart until May due to latest lockdown, says Costa Cruises
A Costa Cruise liner towers over Venice. Photo: Andrea Pattaro/AFP

The company, which is owned by Carnival, pushed back its relaunch date from March 27th to May 1st.

Anti-coronavirus measures in Italy “do not allow us to offer passengers a travel experience that meets expectations”, especially regarding excursions, the company said in a statement on Monday.

Faced with a rise in Covid-19 infections, Italy put most of its territory under a new lockdown last Monday.

READ ALSO:

The Costa Smeralda cruise liner will be the first to launch on May 1st, with trips lasting three to seven days in Italy, with stops in Savona, La Spezia, Civitavecchia, Naples, Messina and Cagliari.

“Health conditions permitting,” the Costa Smeralda will also resume its week-long cruises in the western Mediterranean starting June 12th, with stops in Italy (Savona, Civitavecchia and Palermo), France (Marseille) and Spain (Barcelona and Palma de Mallorca).

Another ship, the Costa Luminosa, is scheduled to depart from Trieste on May 16th for a week-long cruise to Greece and Croatia.

Neither Costa nor its biggest Italian rival, MSC Cruises, have sailed from Venice since the pandemic first pushed Italy to restrict travel last spring.

To the relief of campaigners who have long tried to stop giant liners entering the fragile Venetian lagoon, cruise companies have switched their departures to the bigger ports of Genoa and Trieste.

READ ALSO: ‘New model’: How Florence and Venice plan to rebuild tourism after the coronavirus crisis

Photo: Andrea Pattaro / AFP

The cruise industry has been badly hit by international travel restrictions, as well as safety concerns after several Covid-19 outbreaks aboard ships.

Costa said it would follow a strict health protocol, including limiting the number of passengers, tests for all passengers and crew, temperature-taking on board and at disembarkation and the wearing of masks when required.

The Costa Deliziosa had resumed sailing in September after a five-month break due to the epidemic, calling only at Italian ports. But after Italy’s government decided to ban cruises during the holiday season, Costa Cruises on December 20th suspended its voyages.

Before the pandemic, Italy’s 14.5-billion-euro cruise industry — Europe’s largest — supported nearly 53,000 jobs, according to the Cruise Lines International Association. 

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

HEALTH

Covid-19 still causing 1,000 deaths a week in Europe, WHO warns

The World Health Organization's European office warned on Tuesday the risk of Covid-19 has not gone away, saying it was still responsible for nearly 1,000 deaths a week in the region. And the real figure may be much higher.

Published: 27 June 2023 13:27 CEST
Covid-19 still causing 1,000 deaths a week in Europe, WHO warns

The global health body on May 5 announced that the Covid-19 pandemic was no longer deemed a “global health emergency.”

“Whilst it may not be a global public health emergency, however, Covid-19 has not gone away,” WHO Regional Director for Europe Hans Kluge told reporters.

The WHO’s European region comprises 53 countries, including several in central Asia.

“Close to 1,000 new Covid-19 deaths continue to occur across the region every week, and this is an underestimate due to a drop in countries regularly reporting Covid-19 deaths to WHO,” Kluge added, and urged authorities to ensure vaccination coverage of at least 70 percent for vulnerable groups.

Kluge also said estimates showed that one in 30, or some 36 million people, in the region had experienced so called “long Covid” in the last three years, which “remains a complex condition we still know very little about.”

“Unless we develop comprehensive diagnostics and treatment for long Covid, we will never truly recover from the pandemic,” Kluge said, encouraging more research in the area which he called an under-recognised condition.

Most countries in Europe have dropped all Covid safety restrictions but some face mask rules remain in place in certain countries in places like hospitals.

Although Spain announced this week that face masks will no longer be required in certain healthcare settings, including hospitals and pharmacies, with a couple of exceptions.

Sweden will from July 1st remove some of its remaining Covid recommendations for the public, including advice to stay home and avoid close contact with others if you’re ill or have Covid symptoms.

The health body also urged vigilance in the face of a resurgence of mpox, having recorded 22 new cases across the region in May, and the health impact of heat waves.

SHOW COMMENTS