Costa Cruises to require cruise passengers to test negative for COVID-19 ahead of boarding
Costa Cruises, the Italian line which is a subsidiary of cruise giant Carnival Corp., will require all passengers to have a negative COVID-19 test result prior to boarding.
Before embarking, all passengers will be subject to an antigen test starting with its first Sept. 6 departure and on all ships resuming operations going forward.
“The quick antigenic test will identify any suspicious cases that may be subjected to a PCR test for further check, thus determining the possibility of embarkation,” the cruise line said in a release Tuesday.
MSC Cruises has also implemented a requirement that all passengers should take have a negative antigen test before boarding.
But the rapid test is the subject of concern for inaccurate results.
Antigen tests detect specific proteins on the surface of the virus. Testing materials are cheaper and more plentiful. And the tests are fast, delivering results in 15 minutes. But they’re considered less sensitive than PCR tests, which Costa is instituting as a secondary step if the Antigen test indicates infection, and more likely to miss a case.
PCR tests detect the virus’s genetic material. Considered more sensitive because they find even low levels of the virus, these have been the diagnostic test for public health and clinical labs since the beginning of the pandemic.
The cruise line announced earlier this month that they would resume operations on two vessels, the Costa Deliziosa and the Costa Diadema, early next month with the first voyage departing on Sept. 6. All voyages are open only to Italian cruisers, according to a release provided by Carnival Corp. Spokesperson Roger Frizzell.
Between Sept. 6 and Sept. 27, the Costa Deliziosa is scheduled to embark on weekly cruises, departing on Sundays from Trieste, according to an Aug. 20 release provided by Frizzell.
The Deliziosa will make five stops in the Southern part of the country including Siracusa and Catania in Sicily, Corigliano-Rossano in Calabria and Bari and Brindisi in Puglia.
Meanwhile, the Diadema will depart on a single itinerary from Genoa on Sept. 19 to make port calls in the western Mediterranean. Stops include destinations such as Rome, Naples, Cagliari, Palmero and La Spezia.
All port calls will include “protected shore excursions,” according to the release.
The line’s newly implemented health and safety protocol, which was developed with public health experts, according to the company, is in accordance with the Italian government and the EU Healthy Gateways program, which was released in July. Their new health strategy is subject to updates.
As Costa approaches its first departure date on Sept. 6, the cruise line is also the “first” to earn Biosafety Trust Certification from RINA, an over 150-year-old testing, inspection, certification and ship classification company, according to the Tuesday release.
The certification examined all elements of cruising both on board and shoreside from embarkation procedures to hospitality, to fitness centers, shore excursions and more. It also looked at the compliance of the system and procedures to prevent and control infectious disease onboard.
Italy has had upwards of 260,000 coronavirus cases with more than 35,000 deaths total, per Johns Hopkins data. And according to the Weather Channel’s coronavirus map which provides data from Watson, their artificial intelligence tracking tool that compiles data from third party sources including the World Health Organization, there was a 2% uptick in cases on Monday with more than 1,200 new cases reported. By contrast, the United States has had more than 5.7 million cases and nearly 180,000 deaths according to Johns Hopkins, with nearly 39,000 new cases reported on Sunday per the CDC.
The rest of the Italian cruise line’s ships won’t sail before Sept. 30, however. The company is extending the pause of is cruise season until that date, save for the aforementioned ship departures.
Carnival Corp., including its Costa line, experienced several outbreaks early on in the pandemic – most notably on the Diamond Princess, which had an outbreak onboard that infected upwards of 700 people, and the Grand Princess.
Contributing: Ken Alltucker, David Oliver
