Cunard Line’s Queen Elizabeth cruise ship has crew members on board who have tested positive for COVID-19, the cruise line confirmed Wednesday. The cruise line did not specify the exact number of crew who tested positive.
“We have detected a small number of Covid-19 cases amongst crew members joining Queen Elizabeth,” Cunard president Simon Palethorpe told USA TODAY in a statement.
There are no passengers on board, and the ship is not due to sail with passengers until July 19.
The Carnival Corp. subsidiary is working with Southampton Port Health and has taken steps to “successfully contain the situation” including limiting the new crew coming on board the ship, putting in place approved isolation measures and contact tracing.
“We have comprehensive health and wellbeing procedures in place to protect all on board, which have been developed with guidance from our global medical, public health and industry experts and in close coordination with Government departments,” Palethorpe said.
Cunard did not share medical details of the crew on board including whether the crew had been vaccinated. The BBC reported that the ship currently has around 800 crew members on board. According to Cunard’s website, the Queen Elizabeth has the capacity to hold just over 2,000 passengers and just over 1,000 crew members.
According to government guidance, only domestic cruises are allowed currently in the U.K. during its third step in the path to cruising’s resumption after it was shut down by…
